The Red Crosshairs
by The Illusive Mann
Summary: Before he became a member of the infamous Shadow Warriors he had a past of his own. Now I tell the story of the man that's more accurate than Deadshot and deadlier than Deathstroke, he is Marcas Valitov, he is the Red Crosshairs. Warning Contains: blood, violence, some profanity, and suggestive language. (Red Crosshairs is my Character, not a self insert)
1. Looking to the past Part 1

**Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to my second ever story. This one is about my character from shadowknight1121's story "**_**The Shadow Warriors**_**" Red Crosshair. I know that somewhere along the line he is going to explain all of the characters and their past, but I wanted to get out Red's past from my perspective. So here it is, the story of my character, Red Crosshair.**

**Chapter 1: Past**

**Red Speaking:**

My name is Marcas Valitov, and I am Different. Different as in I don't belong here amongst the calm collective of society, but instead in the battlefields where my capabilities would truly be of good use. What powers do you ask? Let me tell how I got them first, then I will tell what they are.

_Date of birth: April 1, 1985_

_Country: Soviet Union(Russia)_

I was born into a military family. My father, Anton Valitov, was four star general in the army and was a well respected individual. My mother, Karina Valitov, was a former KGB agent that retired after fifteen years in service. Even with their occupations they could still show compassion, compassion they showed to me when I was born. I looked at every one of my parents pictures before my birth, and saw the emptiness on their faces. Come to find out they tried for five years to have a child with no success, and then I came along, I gave them a reason to smile.

The next four years I grew up in a prosperous household where we were treated like Americans, like kings. We had servants that served us at our every beck and call, and life couldn't get any better, until that fateful day. My mother had gone out to get food instead of letting one of our servants get some for us out in the markets. She didn't want them to go because she knew that they wouldn't give any food to those that were begging out in the streets. My mother knew it more than anyone else that people were starving. She went out there to help pay for others meals, those others that almost had to steal their food and risk arrest. She drove her state issued vehicle to the market place and was coming back, when a stray vehicle rammed into her side of the car. I can barely remember the look on my father's face when he learned about the accident, but what I do remember is him saying, "It's going to be okay Marcas, mommy is ok." His assuring statements had no resonance with the ever open ears of fate. My mother died on the table from suffocation. When the stray car hit my mother's door, it bent inwards making a fist-like shape. It hit her ribcage like a boxer would in a boxing match except ten times worse. One of her ribs broke and twisted in towards her lungs, and pierced one. I do not know why those that were in the medical transport with her didn't do anything, but they should have been arrested. Eventually they were, and were forced to go my mother's funeral just to see how many people they had caused to suffer, including my father.

_Eye Color: Brown_

After my mother's death my father changed. November 10, 1989, my father's faith in his country fell with the Berlin Wall. At the age of six, he showed me how to fire his service pistol, and where to find it in case of an emergency. When I turned seven, he started calling the maids upstairs into his room for the night. I thought that he was just asking them to fix or move something by the sounds that came from there every night, but I was wrong. My father was drowning himself in worldly things in order to replace my mother, but he couldn't. One day my father kicked out a maid because she had refused to go to his room, the next day he hired another and brought her to his room to continue the debauchery. He continued this trend until 1992, when it was official that communism in Russia was no more. I was eight years old then, playing with a toy car that was shipped from America. It had a red paint job with white racing stripes, and I couldn't put the thing down. Some of the manservants and maids watched me as I zipped around the room making racecar noises as I went from room to room. I was having fun when all of a sudden the front door slammed open, and there stood my father with a look of pure horror on his face. He scrambled to the top floor of our house and brought down some of his hunting rifles. I didn't understand why, but he started arming those around him, which frightened me. My father at that moment saw me and kneeled so we were face to face. "Son…" he said, "Your father has made a terrible mistake and some bad people are heading this way." He pointed to the stairwell, "Go upstairs and hide in the safe room. Do not make a sound and do not leave until it is completely silent, ok?" I couldn't understand what my father had done, but I nodded and ran upstairs.

Not even five seconds after closing the door behind me gunfire erupted throughout the house. I could hear the screams of the servants as they were mowed down, and my father shouting orders. He still stuck to his instincts even at his age, he would fight for me til the end. He would fight for what was left of his past life with a happy family and never back down. I put my ear on the door and heard a pair of feet scrambling up the stairs, down the hall, and then back into the fray. It had to have been my father, because seconds later he shouted like never before and opened fire with the Kalashnikov that he had in his bedroom. I remember sitting there in the safe room, with a feeling of total defeat. I could help my father, but I would have to disobey his orders.

_Hair color: Blond_

The gunfire died down, and I thought that it was safe, so cracked open the door and peeked out. I opened the door to the room and saw one of the servants on the floor. His blood covered most of the floor around him, as well as the walls. In his hands were magazines, I guess for my father's weapon, but I didn't know for sure. I couldn't believe that I was handling the man's death so easily. My father told me all about his time in Afghanistan. All about the death, the laughter, and the foolishness of our men in uniform there. They pissed on the bodies of those defeated, and even strung them up for photo opportunities, which sickened my father. I was always taught to expect death after my death, but I didn't know that it would be coming so quickly. I remember walking down the stairs into the foyer and seeing the battlefield that was the front entrance of our home. Servants dressed in formal attire, attire which was covered in blood. I knew all of them by name, and had played with them one time or another. Now they all lie dead because of something my father had done? That is when it hit me, is my father alive? I looked through the main hallway under the staircase and saw the bodies lined up along the walls. All of them were men in body armor and masks. But, my father was nowhere to be seen. I scrambled down the hallway yelling, "PAPA, PAPA, PAPA!"

_Height: 5'9_

I looked into every room down the hall, only to see shell casings and more dead bodies. I started to think that during the firefight my father abandoned me in an attempt to draw them away, but I was sadly mistaken. When I reached the end of the hall there he was, my father. I ran over to him and hugged his neck expecting him to say that it is over, that we are safe, instead he pushed me away and pointed at me. "What the hell are you doing down here!" he yelled. "I-I-I-It is quiet papa, you told me to come out when it was quiet." Anton leaned his head back against the wall and cursed about childish ignorance. Then he looked back at me and said, "How did you get down here?" I looked at him and pointed down the hall, " I took the stairs papa. Everybody is gone." He stared at me for a moment then looked at his gun. He motioned me to come over and help him up, which wasn't an easy task for an eight year old. "Son, do you remember where the car keys are?" I nodded and I proceeded to drag him down the hallway. " Marcus, I am sorry that…" My father stopped for a moment, as if he had been caught. I looked up at him and asked, "What's wrong papa?" I waited for a moment and then looked forward, there standing before us were five men wearing the same uniforms as the ones in the hallway. My father shoved me away and yelled, "Go son, get out of here!" I turned as fast as I could as gunfire erupted all around me. There were tears streaming down my face, because I knew that something had happened to my father. I couldn't stop and turn around though because I heard footsteps not too far behind, and I didn't want to get caught.

_Weight: 206 Ibs_

I made it to the garage where my father's state issued vehicle was and pulled out the keys. I scrambled to get them out looking through the hundreds of keys, but it was useless. I dropped the keys on the floor because I felt something on the back of my head and come to find out it was a gun. "Put your hands behind your head, now!" I was scared beyond belief, and couldn't move a muscle, but the stranger moved for me. The other one with him pulled out a rope and tied my hands while another one put a weird smelling piece of cloth over my face. I passed out not knowing where I would go, or what kind of place these men would take me.

_TO BE CONTIUED!_

**Well I hope that the opener was good, because I have been editing and re-editing Red's past in order to make it fit his future. I also hope that I didn't confuse anybody anywhere in this chapter. If you have questions you can Private Message me, or you can submit a review. Until next time! **


	2. Looking to the past Part 2

**Whats up everybody! I'm back and ready to present a whole new chapter of the Red Crosshairs, but before I do I have to say a few things. One, if you haven't gotten the Batman movie trilogy get it (trust me its worth it). Second, a thanks to Shadow Knight1121 for reviewing, and for supplying an awesome story of his own (if you have not started reading his fics, you need to). Last but not least, this chapter will be the second to the last chapter explaining Red's past so we can move on to the present. Enjoy!**

**Red Speaking:**

In all my life I had never felt so hopeless. Hopeless enough that I found no reason to do anything, but to obey my new masters. I remember sitting in the vehicle that I was thrown in, faking unconciousness so that the guards would do nothing to me. But, I realized sitting there that I was not alone. I realized yes there were guards, but also children my age, all chained together like animals. I could understand how they were feeling at the moment, but what I could not understand was where they were taking us, what happened to papa, and what was going to happen to us. We were locked up in a similar fashion that criminals of the state were locked during the time of the communist regime, but that was over. So why would they need us? May answer came too soon as we pulled to a sudden stop. From there the guards opened the doors in the back and led us out to stunningly bright lights, which dimmed with time. As they dimmed, it was all layed out before me, more or less around me. We were in a castle, with huge stone walls, towering and intimidating our little forms below as the guards told us to move once more.

They guided us down a long set of stairs, that If I recall were 45 in number and into a huge chamber where many other children were waiting. There had to be at least 100 other kids there, but I stood corrected. Being a math savant in elementary school, then doing college algebra at the age of eight can really make you take a notice to numbers. So counting the neatly made lines there were at least eighty children, excluding my group, that were all standing around waiting for something. I stood in front of the newly formed line and was told to stand still by the guard. I looked around for what was to happen next, and saw to large televisions on the wall above us, and they crackled to life with a bearded man in a lab coat.

"Greetings children.." he said in a cheery tone.

"I bet you are wondering why you are all here, aren't you."

All the children started talking when he raised his voice.

"Do not fret little ones, you will be returned safley to your homes eventually. But for now you will be staying with Uncle Makrov for a while, and trust me you will enjoy it."

After the last word, the doors in front of us opened, and inside was something that I feared. During my time in school I read books about brave knights getting caught by evil wizards, or whoever the villain was, and being sent to a prison beneath the castle. From what I could recall this place looked like a dungeon, and come to find out it was, it just had more technology to it. When I was thrown in I couldn't explain the feeling that I had whether it was anxiety or hunger, but I felt like I knew that I would never see my papa ever again. The doctor on the screens didn't persuade me either, in the matter of the fact he looked a lot like the devil in my eyes.

It all soon came to pass in the next few years which were all hell to me. They forced us to do combat training meant for spetsnaz operatives. We were forced to endure the Siberian tundra with little supplies and clothing, and without hesitation they were indoctrinating us to believe in Marxism, and the communist way of life. We were all comrades, not friends, and we were forced to be soldiers when we know that we couldn't. Through all of this I survived, but I lived with a purpose. I wanted to flee this place and go to the west, where I know that I would be free. But, there was no way out, no escape.

Eight years had passed since they started training us, and I had already mastered four different courses that we were given. The first being torture resistance. They sent massive amounts of electricity through my body in order to strengthen me, and it worked. The second being survival training, which I passed with flying colors. The third was armed combat and CQC, in which they allowed me to eliminate thirteen of my comrades, all in a bloody fashion. Finally there was overall physical and mental well being. I had trouble at first with little muscle in my body at the time being, but with years of conditioning and training I had sculpted my body to perfection. Of course I was unavoidable to both sexes with the new me. The men glared at me, and loathed my perfection, while the women could not keep their attention away. It wasn't just the muscles in my arms that had improved, if you know what I mean. But that didn't change my demanor, or the way I processed life's little way of holding time back. Even though 48% of all the test subjects died, I walked on. I continued to live as if I hadn't been kidnapped eight years ago and made into a child soldier. I had made a path of my own, but I was not the only one on this path though.

During my time in my cell I had been assigned cellmates. My cellmates changed with the fact that they were either dead or could not stand me, but there were two that could and stayed with me the longest. One of them was a man by the name of Andrei Verensky, who became one of my best friends there. Andrei grew up as an orphan, much like my other cellmate Tasha, except he actually had a place to live. Andrei was a year older than me and looked like it too because of his height and build, and unlike me he was a self made man. He grew crops and sold them to local markets in Vladivostok, where he was kidnapped and brought here. Now my other cellmate Tasha was different. She grew up in Kazakhstan where she made a living stealing from others that could afford to lose a bushel of food or two. Like Andrei she was an orphan as well,but unlike him had a place to call home. She told me how she was caught by the local authorities and locked away for a few weeks, that was until men in combat uniform broke in and kidnapped her in her sleep. And here she is, my only other friend that I had in this hell with walls.

They both were nice to me, especially Andrei, who on occasion, sneaked in western comic books for me, him, and Tasha to read, and to tell you the truth I loved them. I loved to read about people that leap over buildings in a single bound, people that could outrun a cheetah, and even those without powers that used their brains to solve cases and take down villains. These people were called the Justice League, as I now know them, and read of their adventures. They went out every day with one goal, to save lives. I wanted to be a superhero, and one time I asked an instructor about superheros, but he just dismissed me and laughed. I wanted to be like them, the justice league, but I was confined in this damned prison. That was until one day, the day of my seventeenth birthday when all hell broke loose...

**TO BE CONTINUED**...

**Oh snap, another cliffhanger! I'm sorry to leave people hanging, and for making this chapter so short, but at least I posted another chapter. Anyways, I am done with my finals and I should have another chapter up within the next two days or so (because next chapter will be a little more sophisticated). Like I said last chapter, questions, comments, reviews, I accept them all because i'm always on the ball. Until next time!**


	3. Looking to the past Part 3

**Phew, feels like i'm running a virtual marathon with these chapters, but I think I can take it. Hello everyone and welcome to another chapter of The Red Crosshair. The past two chapters have been explaining the beginning of Red's training. This one in particular though will effect him for the rest of his life. Don't change that website because the heat is about to turn up!**

**Red Talking :**

Five hours of sleep was all I had, before I was rudely awakened by the emergency sirens in the hallway. "What the hell is going on?" I looked around and saw Andrei and Tasha by the cell door. Andrei turned around with a nonchalant look on his face and said, "I think we are under attack." I got up and looked out the door and saw the guards scambling down the hall with weapons at the ready, while doctors opened the cell doors and led people out the back. Andrei leaned against the wall and smirked. He knew that this facility couldn't have been government run, that and if so, couldn't remain secret anymore. "I think I know what's going on." Tasha looked up at him, "What is happening?" The tall eighteen year old laughed and replied. "Our beloved government is trying to erase it's sins. You see, our great and respectible leaders want nothing more to do with us. We were children and now we are soldiers, and since our precious government is bending over backwards for the west, I suspect that they don't want an army of children to reach the ears of the UN or the Justice League." The look on Tasha's face explained it all, "You're saying that the government is trying to cover us up?" Andrei nodded, "Da, they want all traces to be gone." Before I could add my two cents, our cell door opened and there stood a doctor with a kevlar vest and a handgun. "All three of you follow the others out the back, from there you will be sent to a more secure location." To Tasha and Andrei this was an opportunity to escape whatever hell the guards were going through, but for me in particular, I believed that we could have taken them all.

There were several guards leading us through the winding hallways that went throughout the bottom of the gulag. Each of them weren't wearing any body armor, which meant that these were rookies that they had moving us. I could tell because we had to be rerouted a few times, sometimes going through the same hallways twice. But we made it to our destination, and to say I was shocked was an understatement. Waiting for us underground was a subway train, which was already starting to fill up. The rear car held various machines and filing cabinets, the center contained doctors and other staff, and the front car was reserved for those that were products of this project. We were forcefully pushed in, no thanks to the guards who only had one job to do, and that was making sure we were on board. Soon the front car became impossible to move in, and before I knew it the crowd had separated all three of us. I looked around, pushing and shoving others out of my way to get me through, with little luck. The train shifted once, then again, then when the third time hit it sent me flying through the crowd, and threw me on something soft. When I looked up I found my face in Tasha's chest. "Tasha, I found you." I smiled hoping that she would do the same, but the look on her face said nothing to me but to "get off". Andrei picked me up on to my feet and laughed, "I think that you should take her out to dinner first before you go to second base comrade."

Eventually the train picked up it's pace, and sped through a dark tunnel. I could see the looks of all of the survivors around me, their training hadn't kicked in yet, they were scared. We had all been through live fire exercises and everything else that a special forces operative would go through and these children were afraid of gunfire? I didn't notice it, but Andrei saw the look on my face and was not pleased at all. "I know what you are thinking." He said as he stood up and walked over to me. "Why is everybody so scared?" I didn't want to answer him so I remained silent. The problem with what I did is that Andrei doesn't like to be given the silent treatment. "Listen to me Marcas, nobody here has been put in this kind of situation. We've just been put through training exercises, just like you, and everybody here can agree that nobody wants to die." I looked again at all the others in the car, and they all looked back at me, but with blank expressions on their faces. Andrei was right, everybody here grew up the hardest way imaginable, with a gun in one hand and somebody's throat in the other. Nobody should live like that; That's when I had an idea.

Me, Andrei, Tasha, and a couple of other survivors gathered in a line. We were going to take this train by storm, and were going to run of freedom when there is an opportunity. Andrei took the lead with a handle bar from the dilapidated train's wall, while the rest of us stood at the ready, waiting for Andrei to give the signal. We were going to storm the cabin in front, and then eventually the control room, where we could guide the trains path, away from wherever it is taking us. Andrei turned around and was about to give the signal when the door opened. There stood a guard with a static baton in hand. "Hey! Where did you get that weapo..." Andrei, as fast as he was, turned around and disarmed the guard, while knocking him unconscious. He tossed me the baton then turned around and screamed, "FOR FREEDOM!" With that we all stormed the guard's cabin, bashing and punching our way through as many guards as we could. It looked like we had the upper hand, when all of a sudden,the guards started falling back. The others thought that we had won, but me and my friends knew that something was up. One of those that helped us out walked up to the conductors door and tried to pry it open, but was me with a surprise when it opened for him, revealing a tall man in a dark blue spandex suit, with orange body armor and a mask with black on one side, and orange on the other. The tall figure looked down on kid before him as he unsheathed the humongous broadsword on his back. "Well, well, well, what do we have here, a small rebellion?" Before now, I had never seen a villain before, especially one that looked as armed to the teeth as this guy. He merely shifted his weight and caused the whole group to retreat, except for Andrei. I knew that he thought that he was tough, but right at the moment I think that he should have realized that he was outmanned. When the masked stranger walked up to him, Andrei had to tip his head up to see him, because of the man's height. My friend was foolish, and his pride would be the death of him, "I am not afraid of you" he said. The hulking soldier looked down and picked up Andrei by the neck, "You should be boy, you're expendable." The odd soldier threw Andrei over our heads, back into the car that we originated. "Would anyone else like to join this waste of youth?" He looked around the car then at me, " We'll then I guess that my business is concluded, enjoy the rest of the ride kiddies." With that he slammed the door and put the security lock on, just to make sure that were old all be kept in our place.

The train stopped at a hangar teeming with armed guards and tanks. From that stop we were all offloaded into three organized lines, each leading to one of the troop transports up ahead. I remember...

_The pain from pulling the trigger crippled my body, and forced me to crawl over to the dead body in front of me. I couldn't believe that the doctor could do such a thing..._

We had all been loaded onto hind helicopters for transport. Each transport was camouflaged to look like a standard military vehicle instead of something else of the latter, but our attackers were relentless. In mid-flight our group was attacked by unknown rocket launchers, which shot down a transport next to us. This caused disorganization between the pilots up front to the point of yelling at each other orders on how to track where the missiles are coming from and how to avoid them, but both couldn't come to a conclusion. That was until the doctor's voice was heard on the radio. We all hadn't heard from the doctor in a while, so it was about time the monster spoke. "Listen up soldiers, your flight plans have been changed. Since we are under attack, and have no choice but to either die or surrender, you will be given the opportunity to decide your fellow mans's fate. Each transport has about eight of you on board, and one was taken down, do the math. But here is the kicker, there are only four parachutes on board each aircraft, and the only way to escape the assault is to jump. You guys only have three minutes to decide." Everybody on board scrambled up front to grab a parachute, including me and my friends. It seemed like all of us were going to kill each other to grab the parachutes, all except for Andrei, who shook his head in disgust. "Looks like you all have failed the doctors test already." Everybody looked at my friend like he was crazy, but I knew him better. He pointed out the window to the other transport, and what we saw made us all feel stupid. The group on the other transport had put on parachutes, but used the cargo straps on board to secure one other person to each parachuter.

_It used to be alive, but now it is dead. I feel terrible, like I should end my life too, but i know I shouldn't. I should use what reserves I have left to kill the monster that made me do_ this...

We finally touched the ground and made contact with a new radio frequency, and from what I was hearing, it sounded Chinese. "Something terrible must have happened for us to be in china" said Andrei. For the longest time, I remembered this moment. This was a trial that tested everybody's survival training. The doctor wanted lower the numbers in our ranks, and see if we could make it to civilization before we died. This test pushed our endurance, and our supplies which dwindled over time, and lead to two others dying in our group. Though from what we heard the other group was doing worse. The others had already lost five out of the eight that landed, and had only one day's rations left. They were in a bad situation, but that was none of our concern. Besides we had Andrei managing our rations for us, because he is a master at organization, and coordination. It surprised me that he was such a good leader, and hopefully someday he becomes just that...

**Sorry to cut everything off again, but if I continued at this current pace I would just be drawing things out in this chapter, instead of concluding. So I will try to conclude the prologue in the next chapter, but there are no promises. Questions, comments, reviews, concerns, I'm here. Until next time!**


	4. Looking to the past Part 4

**Hopefully I can finally conclude the prologue and get on with the beef of the story. :D**

**P.S. Did anybody notice an appearance by Deathstroke last chapter? I don't own him, but he's a cool character. **

(Eight Years into the future)

Eight years ago we made it to an old, worn down monastery, which at first looked abandoned, but when we got closer we saw the anti-aircraft batteries, and the signal jammers with them. The doctor had decided to call this place home, and defile all of the religious artifacts here with his technology and torture devices. The temple inside was covered wall to wall with computers and other devices that the good doctor brought with him, as well as his fellow scientists.

We waited for the other group to arrive for a couple of weeks, come to find out that the rest of the group died and the lone survivor had killed himself, which meant that we were the only six subjects left. To think that we were the only ones left out of one hundred scared me. What would we do? What would happen? The answer is simple, we would be put under a microscope and enhanced, as the good doctor calls it.

For about three out of the eight years, the doctor worked constantly with other doctors in the chem lab on some top secret project. Every time he walked in there, an awful smell followed in suit. We all wondered what he had in store for us, but he just simply told us to condition ourselves until he had perfected his little experiment. Which he did after years of hard work, he pulled us all aside and injected each of us with a weird chemical which had a different effect on all of us. One man could shape shift, another could fly, and the symptoms changed from person to person, ranging from age to sex. Me, all I could do was make my eyes turn red, which everybody laughed at. I mean who wouldn't laugh at the guy who doesn't have a cool superpower. That's when it hit me, maybe I do have a superpower.

I tried flying, and I broke a leg. I tried lifting a tank and pulled a groin muscle. I even tried reading people's minds. So what did I get as a super power? I asked one of the doctors in the hallway about my condition, and he brought me into his office. He did a routine checkup at first, then asked me to activate my powers. He didn't seem enthused at first until called in the head doctor himself. "Excuse me doctor Ivan, can you come to my office." On the other side I could hear clanking and blipping noises, "And why would I do that?" The doctor looked back at me,"I have a certain patient who wants to know what powers he got." The doctor hesitated for a moment, then put the phone down. "He will be here in a second." It literally almost was a second, as five seconds later the doctor burst in. "Ah, little Marcas, still wondering what powers you got eh" he said as he tried to look down on me. "Doctor Nozkavetich, lets bring mister Valitov out to the shooting range shall we?"

The doctor removed my restraints and escorted me to the firing range, where there wasn't a single soul, except for his bodyguards. "Now Mr. Valitov, I gave everbody a specific vial of what I call super serum. As you could tell some people have your everyday, ordinary powers, all except for you." He walked over to a booth and picked up a handgun. "You see Marcas, your powers are supposed to trump all of the others. What I mean by that is, if any of the other subjects gets out line, you have the ability to put them in their place, permanently." The last word caused me to shiver remembering what happened to Andrei on the train eight years ago. The doctor could see my fear through my demeanor, and smiled like he always did when he had something going for him. He then walked forward and gave me the handgun, which caused the other doctor to speak up, "Um doctor, do you think that it was the right decision to give him a weapon?" The good doctor looked at his colleague and chuckled, "I think it's the right decision, in the matter of a fact, you can prove me right!" Before Nozkavetich could move the body guards had slapped hand cuffs on the doctors wrists. He looked down at his hands and yelled, "What is the meaning of this Doctor Markov? What are you.." Before he could anything else the bodyguard next to him ripped one of his sleeves off and tied it around doctor Nozkavetich's face. "You see doctor vetich, I needed a volunteer for this demonstration and obviously you were the first contender. You spoke up first so why not?" He pressed a button on the far left wall and the booths slid away, as well as the far off concrete wall where the targets were. "Doctor Nozkavetich, I suggest that you start running, and start running now." Doctor Nozkavetich obviously didn't know what was going on, but an opportunity like this is one that he couldn't pass up. I later on found out that the doctors on the train were in the same situation that we were in, stay or die. But right then and there the doctor ran faster than I've ever seen a 265 pound old man run.

The doctor looked at him then extended his arm out to me, "Marcas, what I'm going to ask you to do next is to activate your powers, can you do that for me?" I nodded and closed my eyes to try to concentrate, like I had before. When I opened my eyes the crosshairs had formed again, and the doctor was jumping around like a child. "Now take this handgun, aim down range, and stop doctor Nozkavetich before he can escape the facility." The first time that I activated my powers in his presence was different from the last I tried to use my powers. I couldn't control myself and reached for the handgun that I shouldn't have picked up. For some reason I couldn't control my actions, and my body was going through all of the training that I had been through most of my life. Doctor Markov could only glee as he pointed to the frantic doctor down range, " now listen to me closely, I want you to shoot the traitor right in the middle of the back of his skull, got it?" I once again couldn't control my actions as I lifted up the handgun, and something new happened. As I lifted up the pistol to shoot, my eyesight soon became a rifle scope, making the far off doctor look like he was right in front of me. My body was moving without my mind, what had doctor Markov done to me? Before I could hold back any further, I pulled the trigger.

Time slowed down as I watched doctor Nozkavetich's brains fly out of his skull, and his body fall lifelessly to the ground. Markov rejoiced, while internally I was shocked. In the past death didn't mean anything to me, but now that I am older and wiser I cannot deny that killing another human being is wrong. Especially when you have no reason to shoot him in the first place. Doctor Makrov brought me back to reality when he put a hand on my shoulder,"excellent work Marcas, I couldn't be more proud of a successful test,and a successful tester." The couldn't tell it but something had been boiling inside of me ever since I had started contemplating on what I would do with my life. "No doctor, I made a mistake. Doctor Nozkavetich, didn't deserve what I did to him. He deserved to live free from his work and go home!" Obviously the doctor didn't expect me to think for myself, and just from looking at his face I could tell he was, accepting? He waved the guards to leave and put a hand on my shoulder, maybe not as a warning sign but as a sign of comfort.

" Marcas my boy, I bet you are wondering why you couldn't control your actions on the shooting range hmn?" I nodded, "Let me tell you a story, once upon a time there was a mercenary by the name of Deathstroke. He was, and still is the fiercest mercenary around, and took many high paying, death defying jobs. One day he was given a contract to do something that would garner the Justice League's attention, Marcas, do you know what that was?" He asked me a question that didn't really have answer to so I just shrugged. "He was ordered to kill the Teen Titans, in any way possible. As long as they were dead he would get his money, but mister Wilson was not in it just for the money, or the satisfaction, he was in it to gain the apprentice that he never had. That apprentice was none other than robin, batman's former sidekick, who betrayed his own friends just to take down the guy. Can you believe that?" I still didn't know what he was talking about so I just stood still. The doctor didn't consider me an idiot, but gave me a look close to calling me one. "Anyways, he worked for the mastermind until he found out that Deathstroke had implanted all of his pals with nanites that could kill them at any moment. Now for you and you friends this is a similar case, except the nanites won't kill you, bonus theres a bonus. Whenever I make an order and the nanites receive it, they take over your nervous system, and force you conscious mind into a subconscious state. This all means that when I give the order, you have no will that can prevent you from doing my bidding." I couldn't believe the doctors words as he let me go. I literally had no free will now. I was going to be a puppet and when the puppeteer called, I would do as I was told. But, I am not a puppet, nor am I somebody's lapdog, when I find a way out I have to find a way to get the nanites out of me.

After our conversation had ended, I ran away from the doctor, and back to Andrei's suite to tell him the news. But he wasn't there, or so I thought. I walked up to his bedroom door and was about to knock when I heard two voices in there. I recognized one as Andrei, but the other sounded more feminine. For a second I thought that it was Tasha but it was too high pitched to be her voice, so then I decided to knock, and when I did the door immediately opened. There stood Andrei in a bath robe, with the stench of human friction emitting room the room. "Marcas my friend, where have you been?" I was about to tell him the shooting range, when the thought of nanites came up in my head. "Look Andrei, I talked to doctor Markov earlier and he told me something that you and Tasha, no, everybody needs to know." His stance changed when I mentioned the doctor. "The doctor said that we have all been injected with nanites that can control our actions!" Andrei shook his head in disbelief, "the doctor will say anything to scare people into obeying him." "But at the shooting range he ordered me to kill doctor Nozkavetich, and I did! He gave me a handgun and I shot him in the back of the head!" That must have changed his mind because he turned and opened his closet. "All right, I will believe it when I see the dead doctor."

After Andrei put his clothes on we went to the shooting range where it all happened. When we arrived it was left as it was except for one thing, the body was gone. I ran over to the spot where the doctor had fallen and found nothing pointing to his death. "Well Marcas, I think that you've gone off the deep end. I see no body, and I see no bullet." I desperately swept my hand over the ground, looking for something when I heard Andrei walking away. "I'm sorry Marcas, but you can't let Markov get into your head like that," and with that he was gone. I shook my head in disbelief, thinking about whether or not I was going crazy. Maybe I was.

Later that night I returned to my suite, hoping to find solace in sleep. I fumbled around with the key card and dropped it. As I went to pick it up there was another hand there helping me. "Tasha, I was wondering where you were, I haven't seen you in ages." I may have recognized the hand, but her face for some horrible circumstance was bruised. "Hello Marcas" she said with a look of anguish on her face. I looked at her features and saw that it wasn't just her face that had been bruised. Her uniform had been torn around her arms, and especially around her thighs. "Who did this to you?" " I-I-I..." She must have been traumatized, "Tasha.." I said as I gripped her shoulders, "who did this to you." She didn't say anything. "Who did this to you!" Tasha took the key card from my hand and pushed me in. "Look, I was running through a training exercise, and I got banged up ok." Tasha, had always confused me, and did for the past few years, but now I think it is time to tell her how I truly feel about her. "Tasha, listen to me. For the past sixteen years that we have been together I have watched you go through so much pain, probably more than I have. Today I realized that life is a commodity that can only exist for such a short time, and love is an essential product of life, and is necessary for that commodity to prosper. I know that Andrei has his friends and a woman that he cares about, but what I'm trying to say is, is..." I couldn't say it fast enough, but the thought was slowly making its way through. "I think that you are great woman, and that together we may do great things in the future together, and maybe save the world. What I ask may be sudden, but will you spend the rest of your life with me. Tasha Krishna Lokenov, will you marry me?" The look on her face made me think that she was shocked, but then put a hand on my face and rest I there. She then took that hand and slapped me,"its about damn time that you asked!"

That day was the craziest of my life until then. I was used to kill an innocent man, my friend thought that I was falling under Markov's iron fist, and now the girl that I have watched grow up loves me. The night couldn't get any better, that was until she dragged me to the bed and demanded a that we make this night as if it was the last night of our lives. Who knew if it would be?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The next day, I woke up to the most wonderful sight. A beautiful woman, lying next to me, the one that I cared most for, right next to my best friend, Andrei. Speaking of him, I wonder how he is doing. I walked over to the telecom panel on the wall and pressed the key for his room. It came on, but surprisingly nobody was home, what was even more surprising was that his room was in shambles, and there traces of blood on the wall. I turned around to Wake up Tasha to see a surprise, the same freak from the train with orange and blue armor. "How did you get in here?" I asked. He turned and faced the wall right next to the bed, there was a hidden door there. "That should answer your first question, now to answer the question that you are thinking of. You see the doctor now only needs just you to carry out his plan, not Andrei, nor your stunningly attractive human pincushion right here." He saw me tense up and pulled out a gun. "Uh, uh, uh, one false move and she won't survive long enough to go through with the plan." I lowered my guard and whistled through his mask. The front door opened and in came four armed guards with a pair of handcuffs and a black sack at the ready. "You should have rested while you could mister Valitov, because today is the day that you really need all your strength."

_Darkness was all that I saw. They brought me into a room that was as bright as the sun or brighter and stripped me bare. I could hear them walking around me, talking about what size I would need for something. I felt something lift me, then machines compressed cold steel against my skin, them there was some type of extra armor, for a reason I don't know. The last thing to happen was as painful as I could recall, someone walked up behind me and stuck a needle into the bottom of my neck. I don't know why they were doing this, but i knew that something big was about to go down. My body shifted one last time, this time like I was flying, I know that I couldn't but I was_ flying.

(In a secure location)

Doctor Markov wanted his plan to be perfect, but why kill the other test subjects? Why did he listen to that gutless merc instead of his own mind which told him NO. Markov solely wanted revenge against the Russian government for abandoning his program, and against the general that originally funded it. He couldn't reach the man though because he had achieved the highest possible level of authority, president. He knew that he couldn't touch Krechebo without an army, and why hire one when you can make one? Then train with one of the deadliest humans on earth, Deathstroke? The doctor thought that he could control the man, he hired him, but soon found out that Slade Wilson would be too much to handle. That very same man had just walked in.

"Well doctor, all subjects are being brought to the arena as we speak. We will soon find out if Marcas is as powerful as you picked him to be. Doctor?"

Markov couldn't face the merc, the man that took over his plot for revenge. All of Markov's feelings were about to come out, and wouldn't relent until Slade had heard it all.

"Do you remember why I hired you Mr. Wilson?" The doctor asked.

"Yes I do, you asked me to train your child army to fight like adults."

"Mr. Wilson, don't try my patience.."

"And you don't try mine doctor Markov. You know, for all the years that I've worked under you with your hair brained scheme in play, I never thought that you would ever lose track of your own goals."

"Mr. Wilson..."

Slade reached forward and slammed the doctors face into a nearby desk, then threw him across the room.

"First don't EVER call me by that name. Second you should know that I could have snapped your neck just then and granted you mercy, but I didn't. Do you know why?"

The doctor shook his head, "Why?"

Slade leaned down, next to the doctor so he could hear.

"I need you, I need you to command your troops, because I can't. I'm the outsider doctor, and you are the only one that has more trust from them than me. I need you to carry this out, so I don't have to beat you to death to do it."

The Merc didn't make any sense. He wanted to force the doctor to do his own job?

"I may not be making my point clear, but listen to me now. I want an apprentice, and I want Marcas to be the one. He is the deadliest of them all, and that is why I slipped a trace of my DNA in his super serum vial. He has my calculative mind, regeneration, fast reflexes, and the sample from dead shot that you already put in there. He could be considered my son, but also my apprentice. So today make sure that eliminates everybody, including Tasha."

Markov furrowed his eyebrows in protest, "I couldn't do that. Marcas loves her too much, and for the love of God that would kill him."

Slade smiled under that mask of his and said, "I know, it's easier to use a soldier if they have nothing left to live for."

**Well crap, I can't get my thoughts out fast enough, but don't you worry, the end is near. Remember, I said that this chapter would be a little sophisticated, and I was right. Next chapter though, I solemnly swear, is the LAST chapter of Red's past. The next will be a short transition, then we move on to the future! Always remember, Questions, comments, concerns, corn dogs...and um, reviews! Until next time!**


	5. Looking to the past: The Finale

**I think that this is really it. Seriously, no more setbacks, no more second thoughts. This is it ladies and gentlemen, the chapter to change Red's life forever, the moment we've all been waiting too long for...THE FINALE TO THE PAST! And here...it...is!**

Xxxxxxxxx

When I woke up I saw bamboo everywhere. I was dropped in a forest, far off rom HQ, so I couldn't run back if I wanted to. I looked at my chest and my hands, and saw futuristic looking body armor firmly attached. I checked my person once more and eventually reached the spot where the needle entered my spine. There was a decent sized lump there that was the shape of a box. I pressed on it and soon regretted it as static filled my head.

"Attention all subjects...", it was the doctor.

"Today your are tasked with one objective, and that is elimination. You must eliminate all of the other subjects and be the last one standing in order to be set free."

He had to be joking... Doctor Markov would never do something this insane, or would he? At first I thought that he would wanted to keep all of his super powered test subjects alive, but I guess that I was wrong. I reached on to my back and felt three things, a rucksack, a bow, and a quiver of arrows to go with it. Of course I had never seen a bow like this except for in the comic books, but this was not important. What was important was two things, finding Tasha and Andrei.

The bamboo was thick in the area. You could try to make a path through them, but you wouldn't be very stealthy and you would get whacked constantly. I was undeterred though, remembering last night with Tasha, what she said to me after round one of our wrestling match.

(Flashback)

_"Marcas, do you know why I said yes to your proposal earlier?"_

_"Why?"_

_"Because you are not like Andrei."_

_"Whats so bad about him?"_

_"If you didn't know it, back at the old facility in Russia, I followed him back to our cell. I wanted to ask him a question, but he told me to leave. I pressed him for an answer to why he wanted me to go, but he just shoved me away. He was hiding something Marcas, and I wanted to help him if he was hurting, so I tried it again, then did turned on me. He did something terrible Marcas, I had to go to the infirmary for a while."_

_"What did he do?"_

_"Marcas, he took my virginity."_

(back to the present)

I remembered, I couldn't believe that Andrei would do something like that, I mean he was like a brother to me. But Tasha was going to be my wife, and I needed to settle the score with Andrei and ask him why he did it. I won't kill him, but I won't ask him nicely either. I took the bow off of my back, and marched on through the Chinese wilderness, into the unknown.

(Two hours later)

I heard gunshots earlier, and was running north from where I landed to get there. Usually training says that you are supposed to run from the gunfire, but in this case it could be Andrei, or Tasha. When I arrive at the site I see three dead bodies. Each of them has their heads twisted to face their backs, which would require a lot of strength with a super powered group like us. I put down my just for a second, when something flew on top of me and pushed me to the ground.

"Hello Marcas, long time no see."

I looked up and through the corner of my eye saw Andrei, but something had changed. He had on a harness with red tubes connecting to parts of his body.

"Like what you see? Or are you disappointed that its not Tasha."

This couldn't be my friend. He would never talk to me that way.

"Andrei, what did they do to you?"

The freak that used to be my friend laughed at me for some odd reason.

"What did they do? Well from what I recall they gave me something that's going to finish amplifying my super-strength in the next three minutes. So until I crush your skull into a bloody pulp, please continue asking ridiculous questions."

"Ok then, where is Tasha, and WHERE IS MY FRIEND!"

The hulking freak on top of me picked me up until we were face to face and smiled.

"To tell you the truth comrade I don't know what you mean by saying I'm gone because I'm right here, I'll always be here. Besides who needs the old boring Andrei anyway."

"Boring? He was a brother to me, who are you?"

"Who am I? Why I am his alter ego, didn't he tell you that he had split personality disorder?"

"No you didn't."

"Oh, I guess that that gives me an excuse for sending Tasha to the infirmary years ago, you know without all of the remorse."

I had heard just about enough of this. I grabbed Andrei, and with all my strength threw him onto his back. He expected me to escape somehow and used his momentum to then throw me into a group of bamboo trees.

"You shouldn't have done that. it would have been easier to just sit there and listen to my stories, and fantasies as they unfolded years ago."

While he was still talking, I reached behind me an grabbed one of my throwing knives, and threw it at him. It spiraled right in his direction, right on target, and then he moved. He spun around and picked up the boulder that was next to him and tossed it at me. But even his attempts didn't work. All I had to do was duck.

"You know Marcas, with powers like ours we could be going like this all d.."

Before he could finish I had closed the distance between us and delivered a well placed punch to his jaw.

"Are you going to shut up now?" I said as I watched him fly a few feet back.

"No, now you've given me more reason to open my mouth!"

He leaped up in the air, as if he was on the moon, and brought both of his fists together for a slam. I shifted right, and he flew straight into the ground. I walked over to see if he had knocked himself out when he reached out of the self made crater and threw me through a bunch of bamboo trees.

When I tried to get up, he was there with his foot ready to stomp my ribcage in.

"Tisk, Tisk, Tisk Marcas, you should know by now that I have far superior powers than you do. In the matter of the fact, let me show you how I can crush your chest like a watermelon."

At first it was a little pressure, but as Andrei leaned forward, the pressure became a crushing force. I was forced to take short breaths, and nothing more or else he would win. I couldn't let him, even if he was my friend he was also a psychopath, and needed to be taken down. I tried to remember what I had learned from training, but nothing could prepare me for somebody with super strength. An idea popped up and I reached into my rucksack for something. What I found shocked me. In my hand was a sickle and a hammer the symbols of old Russia, and both were now my weapons.

I quickly whipped out the sickle and cut a gash in Andrei's leg, deep enough to get him off me. My powers finally kicked in, and my body did the rest. I took the hammer, with enough momentum delivered a powerful uppercut to his chin, which made him step back. I pulled back then jumped over him, and brought the hammer down on his head, which caused him to lose his balance. I ran in for the final strike, when he blocked me and punched me in the gut. I almost keeled over from the pain of two broken ribs, and realized that Andrei was coming in for another round angrier than ever.

"You think your little toys can take me down? Well you must be sadly mistaken, because I have a surprise for you!"

(back at the secure location)

Doctor Markov had enough. He had come to the realization that he wasted sixteen years of his life, just to exact revenge on the leader of a global power. He would be target number one for anybody that could find him, and maybe for a nice price as well.

He watched as Marcas and Andrei clashed, both of them delivering deadly blows. Marcas with the hammer, attempting to smash Andrei's face in, and Andrei using his sheer brutality to kill Marcas and end it all. He didn't like it, and wanted to stop it, but all he could so was nothing. Deathstroke had locked the door to his room, and took off with a helicopter to observe his future apprentice. The doctor needed a way out of this before Slade got his hands on Marcas, so he frantically searched the room for anything helpful.

"No, the drawers are empty and so are the crates in the corner. Where could somebody have stashed a bunch of tools?"

He thought for a minute and looked at the far right corner that he had checked before. Something caught his eye so he went over to the corner again, this time finding something. He found a handle to something but he didn't know what. He tried pulling on it and nothing happened, but when he pushed it down the floor opened up beneath him revealing a lit up staircase to somewhere unknown.

"Well this is, new."

(in the jungle)

The battle still waged on between the two powerhouses of warriors. Nobody had an advantage, not even Andrei who still had the energy pack on his back.

"Andrei, just stop."

The larger warrior shook his head.

"I won't Marcas, I'm not going to stop until you are dead, got it?"

Marcas stood back, and jumped into the air again, using his strength to move him, pulled the sickle back and swung it at Andrei's neck. He didn't do it to decapitate him, but used the half circle side to pin him to the ground.

"Now you shut up!"

Marcas lifted the hammer and pounded Andrei's head with it. Then he did it again, except with more force. Then again, and again, and again, and again, until Andrei didn't move. Marcas knew that he didn't kill him, but he also knew that the giant would be sleeping for some time.

"I'm sorry my friend, but you wouldn't listen to reason."

He walked back over to where the fight began and picked up his bow. He checked it for damage and saw that it was still in one piece.

"Now it's time to find Tasha."

(in the air)

From a helicopter high above the battlefield, Deathstroke was surveying the battle between Marcas and Andrei, then it all ended.

"Now I don't remember giving the boy those weapons, nor did I give Andrei that energy pack."

Slade knew that the doctor had visited all three of the key subjects before they went into battle. He knew that the doctor didn't want them to die, but to escape. The merc couldn't believe, how Marcas changed his attitude though. The doctor just the day before was more than ready to unleash his small army on Moscow, and wipe it out civilians and all.

"Wintergreen," he shouted to the cockpit, " how is the good doctor doing right now?"

The elderly gentleman pressed a key on the helecopter's console and shook his head.

"Bad news sir, the doctor is gone."

Slade almost punched a hole in the floor beneath him.

"How could he have escaped!"

Wintergreen pointed at the screen in the console, making his master see for himself.

"So he installed trap doors in this facility. Oh well, I guess that I will have to track him down later on."

Wintergreen reached above him and flipped a switch.

"Sir, I got an incoming message from Tasha."

The merc leaned in, "What did she say?"

"The target is in sight."

"Good, wintergreen bring the chopper down by that field over there, because we're about to see a show."

The elderly Englishman turned his head,"Should I have brought popcorn sir?"

(back to Marcas)

When I finally left the bamboo forest, I reached a cliff. Below me was a lush valley, filled with flowers of foreign varieties.

"Why should such a beautiful place have to be a battlefield" I said to myself.

I looked around to see if I could find anybody in the vibrant array of colors, but up here everything looked like an artist's rendering of where's Waldo. I had to go down into the valley to see if I could find Tasha, and hopefully I would. I had walked for almost two mlies after putting down Andrei, and hadn't seen another soul around. Of course Andrei had killed everybody else, so who else is there but Tasha. Then a thought came to mind, there was the doctor and the masked man, who I would both have to visit after I find my beloved.

There wasn't a single path that led to the valley below, so I had to slide down the side of a mountain to reach the bottom. There were plenty of foot holds on the way down to slow myself down, until I was 50 feet from the bottom. I went into a free fall, and nearly impaled myself on a couple of stray bamboo stalks. I didn't see what was at the bottom so I suspected to meet the ground, but what I did meet was a river.

"This can't be good."

The current was relentless, and wouldn't allow me to swim up. Could this be it, could this end me, a little water? I flung my arms around underwater to find a random branch maybe, or a tree that had collapsed, just something to cling on to. My oxygen supply was running low, and my vision was fading in and out, I was going to die. I finally threw my left arm forward and grabbed something, and it grabbed back, it was a hand.

When I could hear the river rushing, I knew that I was out, but who could've pulled me? I looked above me and I saw, "TASHA!" I threw my hands above my head, and coughed up some water in celebration. She looked back at me and tossed me my rucksack.

"Get up."

I did as as she commanded without asking once about her tone. "Tasha, aren't you glad to see me?"

"Yes Marcas, more than pleased to see you."

I watched her eye and movement, when she said that, something was up.

"So were you followed?"

She shook her head, "no, the last person that I encountered didn't stand a chance." She grinned with that last part, she couldn't be. I started thinking about this situation, with her acting just like Andrei. She had a sense of humor, but she never laughed at death, and by looking at her face I saw a mark that I had never seen before. It was a jagged "S" imprinted above her left temple.

"Thats a nice tattoo that you've got there. Didn't know that the doctor allowed facial art."

"Who said that the doctor was in charge anymore?"

"What do you mean?"

Tasha, like Andrei had somehow changed overnight. I already knew that, but why my friends? When I saw the dead bodies where I faced Andrei, I noticed that they all looked the same, and none of them had been advanced with anything. None of them had any devices to improve their powers, except for Andrei, and now with Tasha.

"I've heard so much about your powers Marcas, wanna see mine?" She said as she rolled up her sleeves.

"My God.."

On each of her wrists were some kind of scifi looking bracelets, each with the same symbol from her temple, and each emitting a loud humming noise.

"Tasha, what happened to you!?"

She looked at her wrists and responded, "Slade has given me an opportunity to become his apprentice, and has given me these power enhancers to do it with."

I saw the look in her eyes, and didn't recognize the eyes that looked into mine the night before.

"Tasha, don't you remember what happened last night? Do you remember nothing at all?"

Tasha raised a brow, "remember what? The only thing that happened last night was my master giving me these gifts."

I could only shake my head. She had been taken over by that creep that was in my room, but how? Then I remembered, the nanites. I couldn't control my body or anything else throughout the entire time that they were active, and now it looks like this Slade guy was using them as well.

"Tasha, you are being used by this man as a pawn. You need to fight the nanites in your body, I know that you can. Use your free will!"

"I am Marcas! Can't you see?"

"No Tasha! I won't accept this! This is not the real you that I know, but a personality made by a master manipulator!"

I was about to continue, when I heard applause in the distance. I looked around Tasha, and saw a huge, open field. On the far edge of it there was a helicopter draped in camouflage, and an all too familiar face.

"Slade!"

The merc chuckled, "That's my name."

The cocky fool, "What did you do to Tasha?!"

He crossed his arms, and scratched the chin of his mask. " I gave her an opportunity to serve a greater purpose, one that provided her with more of an opportunity than being your wife."

"You mean an opportunity that you had to force with the nanites, because she wouldn't obey you. Am I right?"

He bowed, like a performer would after a good show.

"Well I guess that you figured it out, bravo. I guess that I should congratulate you on your discovery, but that would be a big waste of my time. You see, after a botched job that I did in jump city, I realized that I not only needed an apprentice, but somebody that was like me more than that caped crusader. I needed one of you guys, a masterfully crafted super weapon, ready to be put to good use, but the doctor wouldn't let me. He wanted you guys all to himself, all for revenge, and he was stupid. If you guys were sent to Moscow, the justice league would stop you in your tracks. So I decided to repurpose the project with my nanites, and reengineered them to do the job of the old nanites and something new.."

"Control minds.."

"Right again Marcas, you're getting smarter by the second."

I reached behind my back and unsheathed the sickle. " And you are a dead man! HAAAAAAAGH!"

I ran as fast as I could towards him, holding my sickle high in the air to eventually have it come down and kill the smug fool before he continued. But for some reason I stopped in mid charge. I looked around and saw nobody holding me back, but what I did see was the prescience of dark energy surrounding my form.

**CUT! Hello audience, Illusive Mann here, and I've got a message for you. I've got music! That's right, yours truly has decided to insert epic battle music into the upcoming scene. Yes you won't be able to hear it here, but you will be able to on youtube. So here it is (look it up), "Greatest Battle Music Of All Times: Invincible" it fits right in to the scene and doesn't require any lyrics. I hope you like it and the rest of the chapter, so enjoy!**

"Don't you dare lay a single finger on my master."

I looked all over my body, and examined the field around me.

"So you can project energy, like the green lantern?"

She nodded, "Yeah, and I can also do this."

The field around me dropped me to the ground and formed into a ball. I looked over at Tasha and saw her focus both of her hands on the round collection of energy, which was now a fist.

"I don't know about you Marcas, but this looks like its going to hurt."

She shot her fist forward, as well as the projected projectile which was coming my way. I got up and jumped to the right, expecting to hear it hit the ground, but that didn't happen. Instead, she redirected it before it even touched the ground, and sent it flying right at me. I couldn't dodge it and it smacked me straight in the ribcage. The pain was livable for a while, until my back hit a tree. With the sound I made hitting it I thought that I would have broken a few bones and I did, but as I stood up there wasn't any pain. I wonder what the doc had put in that vial.

"How are you standing Marcas, I threw you against that tree harder than a bullet hitting concrete!"

Obviously she didn't know that the good doctor must have slipped regeneration in my vial, and neither did I. I looked across the field and saw her pulling her fist back for another attack, this time focusing more energy into her fist. When she shot it, it looked like a freight train was about to me by the sheer size and the velocity that it was going at. There wasn't a chance in hell that I could dodge something like that, trying never hurts though. I scrambled to the left and put all my weight in front of me to outrun the ball of energy. Just a few seconds passed and it flew miles behind me into the ring of trees that surrounded the field. Tasha was powerful, but it seemed like she wasn't fully trained enough to take me on.

(across the battlefield)

"Damn it" said Slade.

Wintergreen flinched at the merc cursing and shook his head.

"I thought that this was a bad idea. Master Wilson the young woman has shown that she couldn't face somebody of Marcas's calibre, and I thought that your standards would not permit her to even enter your ranks. It's Terra all over again."

Wintergreen didn't mean to, but he angered the masked merc.

"I thought that you had forgotten that incident sir, I do apologize.

Slade sighed, "I haven't forgotten it Wintergreen, I just thought that miss Lokenov would put up a better fight."

"Well what are you going to do about it?" Said the butler.

"We'll wait for Tasha to make her next move."

"And if mister Valitov gains the upper hand."

Slade turned around,"Then we use the plan B."

(in the battle)

Tasha was becoming sloppy the more that she allowed her anger to get in the way. She wasn't angry at me, she was angry at herself for missing so many shots.

"So, did your master train you to fight like that? If he did then I think that thou need to go back to basic training." I said with a smile.

"Shut up!"

She fired a few more blasts that hit a bunch of helpless plant life.

"Tasha, what did these plants ever do to you?"

Tasha tensed, and I thought to myself that maybe I shouldn't have angered her, because she now had both of her fists glowing with energy. Wait, had she only been using one hand the whole time?

"All right Marcas, I guess that I'm going to have to use both hands to finish you off!"

**(Music cuts)**

Did she just say that? I couldn't help it...

"That's what she said!" I yelled as I burst into laughter.

Tasha looked like she was prepared to attack for a moment, then she pulled both of her hands back to cover her face.

" Hahahahahahaha!"

I couldn't believe it, but I got a little bit of Slade's control to crack, maybe more. Her laughs spawned into an uncontrollable fit, and soon she was rolling on the ground laughing. I didn't even think that it was that funny, but something like this showed that Slade's control over her was not absolute.

"You know Slade, if I can make her laugh like this at a little joke, what makes you think that you can control her in combat. Slade, you can't beat free will."

I expected him to throw a tantrum after seeing the display that Tasha was putting on, maybe even make a dent in the helicopter behind him, but he didn't do anything. All he did was stand there with his hands behind his back.

"Mr. Valitov, it seems that you incapacitated miss Lokenov, just not how I expected you to."

"What did you want me to do? Kill her!"

Even across the field I could see him nod, "Thats correct mister Valitov, and you are going to do just that." After that last word he pulled his left hand from behind his back, and revealed a trigger.

"I hope that you enjoyed her while you could, because now she's mine."

He pressed the button and Tasha stopped laughing. I turned to look at her, and saw that she wasn't moving at all. I ran over to her and picked her arm to check for a heartbeat, but there was no beat.

"Slade! What have you done!"

He threw the trigger behind him and tilted his head from side to side.

"You might want to check your girlfriend's beat again lover boy."

**Music: Pray-Red vs. Blue season 10soundtrack **

I turned around to check her pulse again, but she wasn't there. I turned to face the Slade, and got a fistful of energy, right in my face. This wasn't like the other attacks before, it was well focused, and unhinged my jaw from my skull. I went straight into the ground and broke a few more bones around my ribcage. I went to lift up my head to see who my attacker was only to have a boot stomped into my face. I turned my head to my right and saw Slade still standing by the helicopter, but he was standing just like i was being stood on right now.

"What was that that you said about free will Marcus, it can't be beaten?"

I tried to lift my head, but the boot came crashing down again.

"What did you do to Tasha!"

"Elementary Marcas, I took her free will. I took it by using the nanites in her blood stream, combined with receptor that I plugged into the bottom of her cerebellum, something that I didn't do with my previous apprentice. This time there is no free will, just unregulated anger and adrenaline."

I just felt my jaw reattach to my skull, when I was picked up by the neck and held in the air.

"Now mister Valitov, I want you to escape the only way that you know is possible. I'm sure that you can read my mind."

He wanted me to use my powers so he could activate the nanites in me, but I wouldn't let him win. There was another way out, but it would be painful for Tasha. I took both of my hands and grabbed her shoulders, and slammed my head into hers, causing her and Slade to let go of me. When I touched the ground I ran as far as I could to the edge of the field to formulate a strategy of some kind. Even if I knew that Tasha could catch up to me with her powers, at least I will have someplace to use as cover. I didn't expect to have the window that I did, neither did expect for Tasha to take as long as she is. I guess this is what Slade gets for using somebody that isn't proficient with their powers.

Even if she isn't highly skilled with Slade's control over her it would be hard to take her down without using lethal force. Maybe Slade is using a radio transmitter to control the cell sized bots, or maybe he can control her as long as she is in visual range. I turned around the wide trunk of the oversized plant and looked across the field, Slade was there but Tasha was gone. I felt someone standing behind me.

"Tasha, stop, Slade is using you!"

"Sorry Marcas, Tasha isn't here, so please leave a message after I smash your face in."

She powered her fist up with energy and punched me again, this time though sending a ball of energy after me. Her punch sent me flying into the cliff that I slid down earlier, making a Marcas shaped indent in the rock wall.

"Ow, I know I can regenerate broken limbs, but Christ when am I going to get a break."

I sat up for two seconds when the ball of energy hit me and pushed me further into the side of the mountain.

**(music cuts again.)**

(by the helicopter)

Slade was shocked that Marcas was actually hit, and at the power that Tasha had in her. He could feel the energy coursing through her body, something that didn't happen the last time he took control of an apprentice. She didn't show any exhaustion, she was relentless, but she was sloppy. Wintergreen thought that the fight was over and was walking to the helicopter when Slade stopped him.

"Where do you think your going? The fight isn't over yet, look."

He pointed to the crater where I was at and saw two red crosshairs glowing in the dark. Wintergreen's eyes widened, while his master prepared his puppet for the next round.

"I'm sorry Tasha but I have to do this."

I leapt from the crater with two things that Slade didn't prepare for, two chrome plated desert eagles. With my powers activated I could see the whole battlefield, like I saw the firing range and unlike last time it felt surreal. I shot around her to get to Slade, but he forced her to put up a barrier. I fired another salvo and she went on the defensive again. I realized that he would force her to summon a barrier, and planned ahead. I took one of the eagles and fired my right, forcing her to cover her right, so went to her left and closed the gap between us. Before she could summon another defense I was able to get her on the ground, and forced her to land on her stomach.

"I'm sorry Tasha, but this is going to hurt."

I aimed for both devices on each of her wrists and fired. I may have shattered her wrist joints, or I just damaged the amplifiers and her attacks will be less powerful. Anyways, I left her on the ground while I made a move on her "master". The look on his face could describe it all, even with one eye visible I could see fear.

"Wintergreen, prep the helicopter, NOW!" Yelled Slade, as I slammed into him.

He wasn't prepared to take me on, and he showed it, but experience, and muscle density got the best of me. Slade threw me off of him and pulled something off his back.

He said with ragged breath, "Well I didn't expect you to do something like that, but I guess that's what reaction is for." He pointed the blade at me, "I guess that you won't be coming quietly will you?"

"What made you think that I would go anywhere with you?"

"This.." he used his free arm and pressed something on his other gauntlet, causing a blood curdling scream to come from behind us. Across the field Tasha looked like she was in pain, extreme pain.

"See that, that's every pain receptor in the human body going off at once. The average human body, if exposed to this kind of torture can expire in a short time, specifically ten minutes. Now let me be clear, I do have the means to stop this, but I won't. And I know what you're thinking, can I just kill him and save the girl, right? Wrong, I have a deadman's switch installed, so if my heart stops the nanites don't."

He now had his boot on my head, and was pressing it more and more down my face.

"Here are your choices: A, you can come with me and she lives, or B You can come with me resist me and she dies. It's your choice."

I snickered underneath his boot, "You left out one choice."

"And what is that mister Valitov?"

I grabbed his ankle and twisted it sideways Which caused him to drop his sword. Time slowed down and I gripped the handle and swung it at his face. Slade saw this and forced himself to fall backwards, but it didn't put him out of range of my swing. I managed to cut into his mask and reach his face by the reaction that I got. I then grabbed his left arm and pulled it behind him, pulling his left arm out of it's socket and typed a few keys on his wrist pad. Tasha stopped screaming and I ripped the small computer off of Slade's wrist, so he couldn't activate the nanites again.

I dropped the wounded merc and ran for Tasha, not even noticing the now unmasked mercenary getting back up behind me.

"So you think you can walk away Marcas, well let me give you a parting gift to remember me by. From Deathstroke with love."

Slade pulled a revolver from his left side with his right arm, aimed, then fired one shot. The bullet went sailing at an angle, going towards the ground flying towards it's intended target, Tasha.

I looked behind me when I heard the shot, and immediately knew where it was going. I tried to leap into the path of the bullet, but it was too late. I jumped too high and the bullet missed me by half an inch. I fell to the ground, and cringed when I heard metal hitting flesh.

"TASHA!"

I looked over to her face and saw her last expression. It was one of surprise. This wasn't supposed to happen, how did Slade get back up so fast...Slade.

I turned around and saw the coward getting in his helicopter. He was not getting away. I got up and sprinted towards the fleeing merc and his cohort, throwing all of my energy into my legs. I focused on the cockpit with my eyes and pulled out my desert eagle. I looked down the sights at the old man in the front, ready to take the shot when somebody else opened fire.

I stopped for a moment, thinking who pulled the trigger when I looked in the open door on the side and saw Slade with his revolver, still smoking from the shot. I didn't notice it, but I was shot in the stomach. Slade didn't kill me instantly, but instead granted me a slow and painful death. I had regenerative powers, but they could only go so far. I felt the acid in my stomach trying to dissolve the bullet, but to no avail. That monster. He wanted an apprentice, and couldn't get his way, so he found the easy way out. Killing me was terrible mistake, but killing Tasha. If I could live from this gunshot, Slade would be a dead man.

**Holy crap this took forever. I thought that making this chapter would be easy, but boy was I wrong. Anyways, this chapter explains part of Red's past and is only the prologue of the fic. That's right this is just the prologue, its going to be a much longer fic; so buckle your seat belts, cause its going to be a long ride. Until next time!**

**P.S. I changed up Red's past a bit because I didn't like it as it was. Originally it was Marcas who was supposed to kill Tasha (under the influence of the nanites of course, and Marca's father was supposed to go crazy. So I was just letting people know. Also I set an Illusive Mann record with this chapter(over 6,000 words) WOOOO!**


	6. The Ever Informative Oleg

**Hello once again audience, this isn't Tobuscus, this is the Illusive Mann. I'm here to deliver a not as action packed and dramatic chapter of the Red Crosshairs. But before I do that I have something to point out. That is, as I mentioned last chapter, I changed up Red's past a bit and by bit me actually mean A LOT. Before I made this story I had already made an organizational chart on my pc detailing how it would go, because when you make a character you need detail. You can't just make a dull character and expect great things, because that's not going to happen. When you make a hero, usually they fight for something, be it world peace or maybe to defeat an evil army of parasites, either way they need something to fight for. It's what people do everyday.**

**Back to the subject at hand, one thing that I changed was Marcas's father. Originally he was supposed to go crazy in his mansion, kill all of the maids and manservants, and eventually threaten little Marcas forcing him to kill his old man. I didn't like this so I had his father have a change of heart and defend his son to his last breath, as any parent should for their child. Another thing I changed was the doctor. Originally the doctor was supposed to be on the warpath the whole time and Deathstroke the terminator was nowhere to be seen. I changed that too, because people do change, even if they have a plot for revenge, and I couldn't pass up having DC's version of the punisher somewhere in there. Another little detail is Tasha. At first it was Marcas that was supposed to kill her, without the nanites. How could this happen? I asked myself that similar question, and just decided to trash that idea. This is also why I added Deathstroke, because Marcas needed a bad guy, a bad guy without a true nemesis. The last detail will be revealed in this chapter. I'm sure that I don't have to tell anybody this, but enjoy!**

**The Red Crosshairs Part 2:**

**Becoming the Hero**

I had always wondered how I would die during my internment. I thought that I would be lost in the snow during our winter exercises, or maybe get shot during live fire training in a blizzard, but not quite like this. I told the most beautiful woman that I had ever met that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, and flee to America after everything blew over. That was a pipe dream for sure. My friend had sexually assaulted my wife to be, and had split personality disorder. How I didn't see it Coming, I don't know. Maybe he found a way to hide the other side of his personality after that, and Slade unlocked it. I never knew, but I guess I will get to know the answer being dead and all.

Wait, I just felt something on my face. Aren't you supposed to have no feeling at all when you are dead? Maybe I'm not dead, maybe I've just been asleep this whole time. Maybe if I open my eyes...

**Narrator speaking**

Bright light flooded his vision, so bright to him that he had to close his eyes.

"Ah, I knew that you would wake up soon." Said an elderly voice.

Marcus was trying to adjust to the lights above him from behind his eyes, but that didn't help one bit. He moved his hands again and the light burned his pupils again.

"Here let me turn off the lights."

He heard the shuffling of feet then a small click from across the room.

"Is that better?"

Marcus nodded, still caught in a daze from the lights.

"Good, I wouldn't want you to go blind with those crazy eyes of yours."

The former test subject stood up and looked at the man behind the voice. He was old, as he could already tell, and he was Russian. Marcas was already a good two feet taller than the elderly gentleman, even without any boots or shoes on. The old man looked up at Marcas and saw a look of confusion on his face.

"Who are you?"said Marcas.

The old man pointed at himself, and Marcas nodded.

"I'm Oleg Parishtay, or you can call me Oleg for short."

The old man extended his hand and Marcas took it. The young man didn't know what was going on, but all he had to explain this situation better to him was the man standing in front of him.

"How am I alive?" Marcas asked. Oleg grinned and put a hand Marcas's shoulder.

"A friend of mine found you and brought you here. You were lucky that they made it there as fast as they did or else you would be dead."

Marcas felt a weight drop within him. His memory came back all in one flash forcing him to the ground. His mother dead, his father giving his life for his son, the brutal training that he went through, Andrei leading the charge on the train, killing an innocent doctor, the night with Tasha, and finally the battle that he would forever remember with the love of his life and Slade. The last part made his blood boil.

_'That monster will pay!'_ he thought to himself.

Marcus tried to stand up as fast as he could, but found himself dizzy, so he collapsed to the floor again. The old man walked over to Marcas and gave him a hand, but Marcas refused it.

"You need to take my hand boy, you aren't going to get up by yourself with how much blood you lost. Hell I'm surprised that you even stood."

Oleg didn't comfort Marcas more then made him feel unsure about own health. Marcas tried to stand on his own two feet and fell backwards onto the bed behind him. Oleg just shook his head in disbelief.

"I think that you should stay here in the bed, and try to stay awake."

"Doesn't that defeat the purpose?" Questioned Marcas.

The old man nodded, "Da, but you've been out for almost five days. I'm afraid if you fall asleep again you might not wake up."

Marcas lifted his arms from under the sheets and saw that they were shaking.

"How much blood did I lose?"

Oleg picked up some keys off of his dresser, and turned around.

"One and a half liters, which if I recall, is thirty percent of the blood in your body."

Marcas fell back behind he pillow behind him, sleep coming soon, that was until something was thrown at him.

"Here is a way to stay awake, watch some tv."

The dazed superhuman just glared at the remote, and all of the buttons on it, not even knowing what to do with any of them.

"I will let you figure that out, and while you are doing that I will be going by the store, because I have a house guest that hasn't eaten in almost five days."

Marcas's stomach growled in agreement and Oleg made his way out. Marcas tried to operate the remote, pressing the many buttons on it each doing something in the room. The lights turned off, the bed shook, the blinds on the window opened and closed, the toilet flushed, and eventually the tv turned on.

"Finally I got this stupid contraption to work. Now to find out what's on."

As the tv turned on, Marcas suddenly realized that the volume was turned all the way up. A CD was in the DVD slot, and out of nowhere the wonderful music of Eduard Khil filled his ears

"TROLOLOLO LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLO TRALALALALALA, YEYEYEYEYEYEYEYEYEYEYEYEYE HAHAHAHA HAHAHAHA"

Marcus desperately tried to find the volume on the remote to turn it down and pressed a big grey button labeled 'stereo', soon the ever trolling voice of Eduard Khil filled the apartment. Marcas regretted touching the little device in his hand, and threw it across the room.

"AAAAAH, MAKE IT STOP!"

(1 hour later)

Oleg was fumbling with the keys in the elevator when it reached his floor. As soon as the doors opened the elevator filled with the sound of one of his favorite artists from home. But why was it so loud? He looked down the hall where his door would be and saw a couple of neighbors gathered around the door.

"Open the door parish, or we'll open it for you!"

They didn't even notice their neighbor approaching until he was standing in front of the door.

"So I guess that none of you enjoy this song as much as I do." Oleg said with a smirk

He opened the door, and unleashed a flood of sound unheard of on that floor. Everybody else scattered while Oleg walked into his bedroom where Marcas was laying with pillows tied to his ears. Oleg looked all around his bedroom for the remote and found it on the end of the bed. All it took was the press of a button and everything turned off.

"I think that it's safe to take the pillows off now."

Marcas didn't even move.

"Marcas can you hear me?"

He gave a thumbs up, and took the pillows off his head.

"That was from a couple of nights ago. You know he was my favorite singer from the mother land."

Marcas shook his head, "How could you even stand to listen to that?"

Oleg shrugged,"I guess it's my old age. Anyways, are you hungry?"

Before Oleg could get an answer Marcas was halfway into the living room. The old man was almost knocked over as he tried to slow Marcas down, but to no avail. When Oleg mad it into the kitchen he saw Marcas sitting at the table with a knife and a fork at the ready.

"You should've gotten a spoon while you were at it."

The old man reached into each of the bags pulling out item after item, looking back every now and then at Marcas who was watching his every movement. He watched Oleg as pulled out some onions, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, and a wrapped up slab of meat that looked like steak. He also pulled about a pack of peanut bitter crackers, and tossed him one of the little individual packs.

"I will get you something to drink, but for right now eat this."

He listened as he heard the crackers hastily opened, accompanied with sound of Marcas inhaling the little crackers one by one.

Without even turning around the old man said,"You might want to slow down. You haven't eaten in days, and all that you've had is a liquid diet. You have to slowly reintroduce solid foods back into your diet or else you'll get sick."

He waited a few seconds for a response, but he didn't receive one. Worried he turned around, only to see Marcas sitting back in his chair.

"You know mister Parishtay, we were trained to survive for weeks without food and water. I'm sure that one little pack of crackers isn't going to hurt me."

"Really now? I didn't know that they did that to you kids from the report that I was given."Replied Oleg.

"What?"

Oleg turned on the stove, "Da, my friend gave me a detailed report on all that happened. They got it doctors man called Ivan Markov."

Marcas sat up straight when he heard the doctors name.

"How did your friend come across the doctor?"

The old man opened up the cabinet above him and pulled out a pot.

"Doctor Markov was found in a local village, not even ten minutes away on foot. When he came to the village he was instantly scrutinized, because its not that often that you find a Russian national in china without any identification papers."

He turned on the faucet and started filling up the pot.

"The Chinese decided to hold camp prison made for political dissidents, basically what the Chinese communist party considered the worst of the worst. They interrogated him for information and they got what they wanted And more. From the report that I've got the some generals in the Chinese military were going to use him to make an army of meta humans to take on the justice league and conquer the globe. If things went south before their plans went through they would blame the mad scientist and send him straight to the UN where he would be tried for his crimes."

He grabbed a few of the potatoes and started chopping them up.

"President Krebechev found out about this and realized that Russia would be affected by their plot. The UN would blame us for creating Markov and an army of super kids, so he had a meeting with his top generals on how to prevent this from happening. The two solutions were either invasion or extraction. A full scale invasion would be damn near impossible with the size of the Chinese military and ridiculous, but an extraction would be fast and easy, so they decided to go that route."

Oleg had already added the potatoes, and had already started chopping the tomatoes. As he started chopping the water began to boil.

"Of course it wasn't an easy task, so they brought together the best of the best. Each of the squad members was from a different branch of the military, some hadn't even seen combat in ages, but they were the best of the best. They did their job, and that is how I got the report." Oleg finished. By the time that he finished he had already added the rest of the ingredients to the pot.

(1 hour later)

Marcas was lying on the couch, and was stuffed from the five bowls of beef stew that he downed. He was glad that he could have real food for once, instead of the nutrient bars that he was forced to eat for most of his life. He was glad that the wooziness was gone too. There wasn't that 'I feel like I should barf right now' feeling anymore, instead he felt like his old self. Well, before getting shot and left to die.

"Oleg," said Marcas, "you've mentioned how I got here and how I was located, but you never did mention who saved me. Tell me, who were these friends that saved me?"

Oleg, stopped washing the dishes for a moment and turned around.

"When you get older with age Marcas you meet people. You meet new friends and make enemies, but you also help others that need help the most, that's a golden rule. Now you think that I may be babbling, but I'm going to get to the point soon, just wait. Now let me tell you something that happened to me three years ago. I found out that my country had been involved in an unbelievable training program that took kidnapped children, and trained them to be killers. I thought that it was a rumor, but I couldn't sit on my butt and not investigate such an outrageous thing. So about fifteen days ago I talked to somebody, somebody that I could trust to investigate this crackpot conspiracy theory. I know him by his first name Charles, but you may know him as question."

Marcus interrupted, "Wait a minute, you talked to question? You mean THE Question from the justice league?!"

Oleg nodded,"Da, he investigated my rumor, and come to find out it was true. The only thing is though, after he sent me his findings seven days later, he was told to make it league business and shut me out. I didn't know what would happen, until five days ago when somebody knocked on my door. When I answered it, I met face to face with none other than the man of steel, superman. He isn't that hard to miss around here, especially living in downtown Metropolis."

Aaaaaand Cliffhanger! So here begins part two of the red crosshairs. Marcas finds out all that happened after his last encounter with Slade, and as you can see by that last two paragraphs there I did include two members of the Justice League. Believe me, there will be more appearances by members of the league as I continue updating, more than superman and question. One thing that was mentioned in the beginning as well were the changes that I made to Macrcas's past. The second to the last big change that I made to his past was Marcas immediately going to Gotham city and meeting the shadow warriors. Not so Fast! I wanted something incredible and awesome to happen to Marcas before he joins shadow and the crew, so I had him wake up in Metropolis. Next chapter he will not be going to gotham city, but make a path of his own leading to gotham. So I hope that this chapter wasn't too boring and as always, questions, comments, reviews, I even accept credit cards! UNTIL NEXT TIME!


	7. The World's Deadliest Metallurgist

**Last chapter was an introduction to a new setting the Marcas will be in, specifically the USA, for right now metropolis. With the second half of this Fic I really wanted to attempt something similar to that of a favorite author of mine(who I will not name) and work with it. So I hope that it unfolds like it should in time, and hope that it's and enjoyable.**

**The Red Crosshairs Part 2**

**Becoming the Hero Part 2**

It had been two weeks since Marcas woke up in Oleg Parishtay's apartment, and found himself halfway across the world from where he was gunned down. Marcas had a lot of questions for the old man, including what happened to Andrei and Tasha. He didn't expect the answer that he got. Superman had followed the path that Marcas took, flying over the spot where Andrei and Marcas fought, eventually reaching the field. Marcas didn't like what he heard, both Andrei and Tasha were gone, where they went he didn't know, but as of right at the moment he didn't have a care in the world.

Oleg decided to introduce Marcas to the different variety of activities around Metropolis, to get him outside of his apartment and into the world. First it was riding around town in a taxi, then there was the trip to the park to see the superman statue. What got Marcas's attention was the talk of sports. Back when he was still at the training facility in Siberia, they were allowed at least two to three hours a week for extracurricular activities, one being football. He and Andrei used to be the best at the sport, never giving the opposing goalie a break, and always having fun while playing the game. When Oleg uttered the word, he was ready to go.

"So you want to see a football game, do you?"

"Da, I've played the sport before, so why not see a real live sporting event."

Oleg scratched his head, "You've played American football before?"

"Football, American football, what's the difference?"

"Believe me, you'll see."

Marcas had thought that he had seen it all, especially when it came to sports. Football wasn't the only sport that he had played while imprisoned in the cold tundra. He had tried out baseball, shot put, pole vaulting, skeet shooting and more. Oleg bought two tickets and gave one to Marcas.

"I think that you will enjoy this."

"I might, it just depends on whether or not it lives up to it's reputation."

They entered a tunnel that went straight up to the nosebleeds.

"Wait a minute, we won't be able to see anybody from all the way up there."

"Marcas, in times like these I need to be careful on how much money I spend."

The young Russian shook his head and followed the old man to the entrance. Once they reached the top the crowd could be seen, both sides sporting different colors. There were the Gotham rogue fans that had black and yellow jerseys and hats, and the local supporters that had red, blue and gold. Marcas kept himself focused on the crowd until he walked into a brick wall, well, what he thought was a brick wall.

"Oh my gosh, I didn't mean to run into you."

Marcas looked up and saw a tall man in a suit, and the body build of an athlete.

"Shouldn't you be down there with the other players?"

The man nodded, "No, I'm just part of the local newspaper."

Marcas scoffed, "Well you could've fooled me."

The man gave him a hand and pulled him up. Marcas looked more into the guys features and shook his head.

"Why would you be as built up as you are, and work as a journalist?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "To tell you the truth I really wanted to be a reporter when I grew up, and here I am. Oh, and I'm Clark Kent by the way."

He extended his hand out to Marcas, and was met with another from the side.

"Hello mister Kent, I see that you've met my young friend Marcas."

Marcas looked between the two,"You know this guy?"

"Da, we've met each other a couple of times."

Oleg turned to face Marcas and guided him to a group of seats.

"Save a seat when you find one ok? I need to speak with mister kent."

Marcas turned into the crowd and did as he was told.

"Looks like you took good care of him."

"Clark, you know that I didn't have to do a thing, the boy can practically heal himself."

Clark shook his head, "I can't believe that the kid went through what he did and came out without PTSD."

"I'm not surprised one bit, I mean after all, he does have a bit of Deathstroke in him."

Superman flinched when he said that and looked all around him.

"What, are you afraid that he is here?"

He shook his head, "Yeah, especially after what happened when he tried to kidnap Kara and turn her into his apprentice."

"He tried to kidnap your cousin?"

"Yeah, and he realized that he made a mistake. Something that he will hopefully remember in the future."

Behind them the crowd started livening up. Both teams were charging onto the field, banners waving proudly, and fans screaming loudly.

"Well I guess that that's my que to go back to the press box. I'll see you around, take care."

"Believe me, I will."

(Across the stadium)

There were many VIP boxes occupying space on the other side of the stadium. In the boxes themselves were the wealthiest of Metropolis, and one from Gotham, Bruce Wayne.

"Have you followed up those leads that I sent?" asked Barbara over Bruce's earpiece.

"I got them last night they led me to a business office downtown with records on warehouse security break ins."

"Well?"

"All I know is that Doctor Tanner visited the CADMUS storage facility and stole a crate containing a small sphere."

"Anything else?"

Bruce was processing everything in his head, "No, but I went by the very same facility and scanned the area around it."

He could hear the oracle over the line typing away on her computer.

"The scan showed a container that had residue that resembles that of the element mercury."

Her typing stopped, "The doctor was a metallurgist."

"And one that helped create self-replicating nanite technology for Lexcorp at one time."

"Looks like you might want to include Clark on this if it involves getting information from Luthor."

Bruce grunted, "No, I don't think that I'll need his help on this."

"Why not? The man made nanites using mercury and you know what happened when he used them last."

"Yeah, one of luthor's thugs leveled an entire village with the nanites and we lost track of the two other containers holding doctor Tanner's creation."

"Not really."

Bruce could hear her typing up a storm on the other line. He looked around the room and checked his watch when he heard the crowd cheer. He stood up and walked over to the window, where he could see the kick returner for Gotham running down the field.

"Check your cell phone."

He pressed an icon and the screen turned on. He scrolled the screen through hundreds of little icons, stopping at the messages.

"All right, I traced the nanite containers that you mentioned to another doctor. The containers were found empty in an old Buddhist monastery that was bought out by a Russian doctor. His name was Doctor Ivan Markov, and has been declared deceased by his home country just three weeks ago."

Bruce raised a brow, "And how does this apply to the situation right now."

"Right, um...I found out something about the container."

"What is it?"

"It's self replicating nanite technology that was being developed by CADMUS as a weapon."

"Let me guess, it was based off of Tanner's technology, they made it without his consent, and now he wants revenge."

"You've got it, and guess who is on his hit list..."

Bruce rubbed his chin for a moment, "Obviously someone here involved in CADMUS."

"Yep, and guess who is at the Gotham-Metropolis game right now?"

"A CADMUS operative."

"He's not just an operative, he's a general in the US Airforce, and he is currently sitting in the VIP box below you."

"All right, thanks Oracle."

(In the press box)

Clark was writing down the rushing yards from the final drive before the half when his com link went off. He turned to make sure that he could answer it. When he saw that nobody was around he tapped his ear.

"Trouble?"

"Clark, do you remember Doctor Joseph Tanner."

"Yeah, he was the metallurgist that worked for luthor years ago, why?"

"Tanner escaped from Bella Reeve three days ago and left a trail that lead to here in Metropolis."

Superman scratched his head, "So why are you worried?"

"Because he broke into a CADMUS facility last night and stole weaponized nanite technology. He plans on using it to kill General Dallas in the VIP box below me."

"All right, that's reason enough."

"He should be doing something soon, and most likely where everybody can see.."

"So he can show the world what CADMUS did with his work" replied Clark.

"Right, we'll need to lure him away from the civilians."

Below the stadium the ground shook. Without a second thought, Superman ran to the closest bathroom to gear up, while on the other side Batman was doing the same.

(With Marcas and Oleg)

The two were a watching as both teams made their way off the field for halftime.

"Wow, I guess that American football is a great sport!" Shouted Marcas.

"I told you so. All that you needed was a little proof that the sport is as great as it is, and could live up to its reputation."

Marcas put his arm in front of Oleg, "Did you feel that?"

Oleg looked around, "What? What am I supposed to be feeling?"

The stands shook, and the stadium rocked. Oleg panicked and grabbed Marcas, but he wouldn't move from his spot. The old man would have tried anything else, but knew that he wouldn't be able to get out in time if the stadium collapsed. So he ran as fast as he could down the staircase, as fast as somebody with arthritis could. Marcas watched in awe as the center of the field collapsed and revealed a figure.

Before the hundreds still there stood Doctor Joseph Tanner, except he didn't look human anymore. His body was covered in metal, and had glowing runes all down his body. His eyes glowed a fierce dark blue color, as well as his palms which were glowing with energy.

"Hello citizens of Metropolis! I'm sure that you've heard that line thousands of times, but this time I'd doesn't involve you. This appearance involves someone here that stole my work and decided to use it to kill the heroes of the world, instead of it's original purpose."

"And what might that purpose have been?"

The doctor and the audience froze as they saw the all too familiar costume of the man of steel on the field. The crowd seeing their hero cheered as loud as they could and signaled others to come back and watch.

"Superman, I see that you've come here to stop me."

"He's not the only one" said a voice from behind.

Tanner looked behind him once more and saw none other than the caped crusader in broad daylight.

"You shouldn't have left such a noticeable trail for your revenge scheme" said Batman.

"Well, I was in a hurry, that and revenge to me is a dish best served hot"

Superman butted in, "You never did tell us what that original purpose was."

The doctor folded his arms and reflected on his research.

"They were originally intended to enter the body and cure diseases. Originally it was all supposed to be funded by me, but After two years my investors decided to pull out their support. I needed the money so I gave it to Lexcorp. The problem was that they made me sign a binding agreement, which I didn't read. So Luthor took my project and like he always does he weaponized it, turning my micro sized cure-alls into weapons of any shape and size. Then the league came in, and beat Luthor, who claimed me to be a mad scientist and had me thrown into prison. This is why I came here."

"But Luthor isn't here" said Superman.

"True, but the person that kept remnants of the project for themselves are here, and once I've killed them, Luthor will be next."

"Sorry to break it to you doctor, but that isn't going to happen" said Batman.

"Well then, I guess that I have no choice but to kill you both."

Tanner aimed both of his palms at the two heroes and opened fire. Both were able to dodge the blasts and move in for an attack. Superman brought his fist to the doctor's face, while Batman slid under him to send him into the air. The doctor flew about fifty feet off the ground when Superman met him. The man of steel put his fists together and smashed them right in the center of his body, sending him back to earth. The doctor had a trick up his sleeve though. As he was flying towards the ground, the skin on his arms turned into wings and that which was on his back turned into small rockets, which shot dark blue energy from the exhaust ports. Superman tried to catch up, but was blasted out of the sky by one of Tanners's energy shots. Batman saw the doctor flying towards the VIP boxes and pulled out his grappling gun.

"Tanner this pointless. What is killing one person going to do, one person that could give you more than just prison time if they die?" yelled Batman.

The doctor didn't even look back and kept on course with his target. He wasn't even ten yards from the glass when he stopped in midair. He looked behind him and saw Batman struggling to hold his place on the ground.

"You know Batman, if you stand there long enough the thrusters on my back will eventually rip you in two."

Inside Bruce knew this, but he was just stalling for time. He could feel the muscles in his arms starting to become sore, as well as the muscles in his legs. He would have to go to plan B if things got worse, which it looked like things would. The doctor activated the afterburners on his jetpack, and started slowly pulling Batman from the earth where he was standing. Soon both were flying in the air, with Batman hanging on by the doctor's foot. The dark night had to do something and fast before tanner could reach the General and exact his revenge. He tried to remember what he used to take Luthor and his thugs down when he faced them last and looked at the grapple gun. It hit him, he reached into his belt and pulled out a xenothium battery that he had stashed away in his pocket, and plugged it in to the gun's dispenser port. He pulled the trigger and sent beams of energy straight into the doctor's nervous system. After Batman pulled his trick he sent a punch straight to the doctor's face, and then to his chest. The doctor flew straight into the ground, this time he didn't want to get back up.

By the time that the fight was over, there were two craters in the football field and the audience had returned in force. In one of the craters lay a now naniteless doctor tanner, naked for all to see. The crowd erupted in applause and the two heroes lifted him out and dragged him over to the police vehicle parked on the other side.

"You know, I never do get tired of this."

The dark knight scoffed, "You know what I always say..."

"Yeah, don't let it get to your...huh, You're starting to sound like a broken record." replied superman.

"As they always say, repetition is the mother of all learning."

As they approached the squad cars near the south exit, a group of officers walked up in full riot hear and grabbed the doctor. Meanwhile the newly elected police commissioner walked up to the duo with open hands.

"Congratulations guys on another job well done."

"Thanks commissioner, but..."

"But nothing, you stopped a nasty bad guy and brought him down."

"He wasn't like the rest commissioner, he tried to do something great with what he made, before this."

"You know, that doesn't matter right now, he's gonna be looking at iron bars for the rest of his life."

Inside the strongest man on earth felt something tug at his heart. He got the glory, he got the fame, but had he created the monsters that plague the streets? As he looked at the doctor he could see he was conscious, and had a look on his face. The man looked confused, and depressed at the same time which added to Superman's mix of feelings. He watched as the armored truck drove away, the doctor looking back at him now with a look of pure hatred, and killing intent in his eyes. He lost his train of thought when a hand touched his shoulder.

"I know what you're thinking, and believe me you're not alone. Everybody in the league has faced this sometime in the past, but we realize that we can't use our powers to solve everything."

"...You're right, we didn't know that the doctor had made those nanites for another purpose."

"Right, now we need to find the person here that caused all of this to happen."

Superman balled his hands into fists and gritted his teeth when the person came to mind, "Luthor."

He said in one word and took off towards Lexcorp tower, not even recognizing the young Russian that watched it all from the stands.

**This chapter was sort of a filler, so that's why there wasn't a lot of red crosshairs in there. But it does fit in to the whole "becoming the hero" part of the story. So now that Marcas has seen an actual hero in action what will he do next? Find out next chapter in THE RED CROSSHAIRS!**

**P.S. Here is the disclaimer: I don't own Batman, Superman, Lex Luthor, blah blah blah. (Marcas, Oleg, and doctor tanner are mine).**


	8. The Job of a lifetime

**You know what time it is? IT'S ALMOST CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS TIME! That's right, it's almost time for the day when we get gifts more dressed up than a girl on prom night. It's also time for most writers here on fanfiction to make a Christmas chapter. something keeps on telling me to wait til after Christmas to post this chapter, but I say why wait. So instead of waiting for jolly old Saint Nick and his sleigh, lets give the Red Crosshairs an early Christmas gift. Enjoy!**

**The Red Crosshairs Part 2**

**Becoming the Hero Part 3: (Christmas Edition)**

(At the hall of Justice)

Heros were sprawling all over the place. The building may have been huge before, but ever since the watch tower was set to be decommissioned every hero had to moved to the hall. Of course there wasn't overcrowding. People had homes to go back to instead of staying in outer space, and the hall really didn't have any room to house EVERY last member of the Justice League. So, the hall mainly served to coordinate the members of the league, and is a place where members can gather and socialize.

Why there were so many heroes in the hall wasn't beyond explanation, in the matter of the fact you could see the answer on a calendar. It was getting closer to Christmas, and evil doesn't take a break, it actually does something worse. The League hated this time of the year, because their arch enemies did what they did best during the other 365 days a year, be evil.

Walking through the front door you could barely make it through without running into somebody. People were frantically scrambling from station to station in the hall, delivering reports of activity everywhere. Most of them weren't even heroes, just locals working with the Justice League.

While all hell broke loose in the rest of the hall, the meeting room was soundproofed to keep unwanted ears out, and secret information in. In the small room sat a round table with seven seats, each occupied by one of the original members of the Justice League. Clockwise from Superman was Wonder Woman, the Flash, Martian Manhunter, the Green Lantern, Batman, and Hawkgirl. Bringing them from their respective cities, each of them had a look of frustration on their faces, except for the man of steel who was carrying a manilla folder at his side.

"Hello everyone, I'm glad that you all could make it."

The group just turned their heads and tried to contain their frustration. Nearly every one of them had to call in someone else to watch over their city, and each of them were worried about how their step-ins would manage. The man of steel saw the tired looks on their faces and dropped the bulging folder on the table.

"Now I bet all of you are wondering why I'm calling a meeting during the busiest time of the year for us."

The group nodded, "To get straight to the point, I want to induct a new member into the Justice League."

Superman knew that he would draw something positive from the group, seeing that a number of heroes dropped out of the league. Everybody agreed except for Batman, who was looking at the massive folder on the table.

"Who is it that you want to join?" Asked Batman.

Superman reached down in front of him and pressed a button on a console. In the center of the table a holo projector turned on, and presented an image to the group. The image was that of a young man, a desert eagle for each hand, and a Crosshair in both of his eyes. The image held it's position while the group examined his figure, and his eyes. The rest of the group had never seen this guy before, but Superman had. Weeks earlier he found the man in China with the help of Question in an open field. He thought that he was dead until question himself checked the guys vitals.

(Flashback)

_"From all that I can tell, the only thing that even shows damage to his body is the bullet wound on his stomach."_

_"What about the rest of his body?" Asked Superman._

_"It seems that other places on his body have been fractured, but it's all been healed. This must have the healing factor of Deathstroke to heal this many wounds in the amount of time that this boy has been lying here."_

_The man of steel scratched his chin for a moment, comprehending what question just said._

_"Does he need medical attention?"_

_The question shook his head, "No, everything's good except for the bullet wound. For some odd reason it doesn't want hot heal."_

_"Give him to me, I know somebody that can help him."_

_The question turned to face Superman and smiled at him from under his mask. "Does Superman have a reason to send a dangerous person like our man to someone else rather than a surgeon back at headquarters?"_

_"Yes, I know for a fact that some of the people working at the hall work for the government, I don't know who but I know that they are there."_

_"You're afraid that they would try to capture him and clone his DNA."_

_Superman nodded, "Yeah, that and I'm afraid of who all has contracts with the government."_

_"Luthor."_

(Flashback over)

Back in the present the rest of the group were staring at Superman.

"Uuh, how long has everybody been doing this?"

Batman from the other side of the table said, "Ever since you went off to whatever planet you went to."

Superman sat down and picked up the file that he carried in.

"The man that you see in front of you is Marcas Valitov, a young man that has been through a lot for most of his life."

Each of the seats at the table had small keyboards built in to their respective side. As he was opening the file everything projects he project that he was involved in. Images flashed across the screen, and left little to imagine to those viewing. It all seemed like the typical weaponization of humans, until Deathstroke appeared. Everybody's demeanor changed when they saw him, excluding Batman and Superman, who had at one time defeated him. The rest of the original members each had their own near death experience with the man that could access ninety-nine percent of his mind, and barely lived to fight another day.

Batman pulled up some of the information on Marcas and looked it over on his terminal. Just by looking at his statistics he was starting to hope that Superman wasn't about to do what he thought was. He was thinking about why the man of steel would suggest him when he spoke up.

"I'm nominating this young man here to join us, because I believe that he has the potential to be a hero."

Everybody in the room looked at him funny, "What do you mean 'potential' to be a hero?" Asked Green Lantern.

Superman had to gather his thoughts, "What I meant was that he has shown actions in his past that-"

Batman saw an opportunity to make lantern's point clear and took it, "Have shown that he can be extremely violent and lethal. From the footage that you've shown, I see no reason to bring him in from his actions."

Wonder Woman jumped in, "But he was trained as a soldier, brainwashed with propaganda at a young age, and then tortured enough to kill his innocence. What else would you expect to see."

Hawkgirl could see where this was going and jumped into the group as well, "I think that he can change."

At that moment everybody stopped.

Lantern looked around, "Do I believe what I heard, or did you just say that?"

She nodded with a grin, "Yeah, I think that the guy could change, I mean just review the footage from the football game. He was excited to see the Justice League taking down doctor tanner, even if the man didn't have an intent to kill anybody that stepped in his way at first...Look, the point is that he likes what we do, and how we so it. If you would've looked further into the archive that's on the screen there is a video of him on a firing range killing a scientist."

The Green Lantern motioned his hand, "And?"

Superman seeing the argument swaying took over, "And he was completely devastated by doing that. The psych report afterwards showed that he was depressed from killing one man."

"Compared to the other kids that he killed when he was younger" said the Flash

This argument was becoming more and more strange by who was picking which side. More or less, the small room had turned into a courtroom, half being the defendant, the other being the plaintiff. The room erupted in arguments again. Tensions rose in the room, tempers flaring from days upon days without rest or stop, people couldn't get along. Nobody wanted to come to an agreement except for superman, and unknowingly the Martian who had stayed out of this meeting the entire time. That was until now.

"QUIET!" he yelled, "This bickering is getting us nowhere. Our enemies are continuing a relentless assault on us and our health, and yet you deny any help from somebody with an open hand? I can understand your reasons for him, but arguing against this potential hero here is pointless. We should invite Marcas here and put him through tests that every recruit had to take before they entered the league, and then judge him on that."

Everybody in the group sat down and nodded. The Manhunter was pleased that he was able to get the members to agree on something for once. For the past few weeks they had been acting like congress, meaning they couldn't get anything done. But for once they all agreed to something, all except for Batman, who was still mentally disagreeing with bringing Marcas in.

"So it's agreed then."

Going clockwise around the table, the original members of the justice league each raised their hands in agreement.

"All right, I'll get to mailing an invitation to his address. This meeting is adjourned."

(Later...)

Everybody had gone their separate ways except for Batman and the Martian. Batman was in the Hall's computer lab pulling up all the information that he could get on the Valitov family, and the Martian was with him.

"What are you trying to find?" Said the Martian.

Batman sighed, "I was trying to look up the footage from his battle in the forest."

"I saw it...his powers make him bipolar."

Batman pressed a few keys on the console and downloaded all the information on a flash drive. The dark knight was in no mood to talk after what happened in the meeting room. He was about to walk out of the room when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"I understand why Superman pressed the need for this young man, and even hid him from the league" the martian said with his normal monotone.

"Let me guess, your psychic connection."

"Correct"

Before the man could continue, Batman had already read Superman's actions.

"Before you go on about what you read in his mind let me tell you what I gathered."

He walked over to the computer and grabbed one of the office chairs, and wheeled it to the alien.

"You might want to sit down, it's going to be a while."

Batman walked back to the computer and logged in. Immediately as the screen turned on he started typing away.

"A few weeks ago I had already found out about this kid. It was the day I needed some help from question, and he wasn't there. Now usually you find him in his office, typing away on some blog about the Mayan calendar, or something like that, but this wasn't the case. Instead all I found was his empty room, and his computer still on. Knowing question, he would NEVER leave his computer on, especially with him still logged into our servers."

He typed on the keyboard and pulled up question's home screen. There were loads of files there, that each had a random set of digits for the file name.

"I usually don't dig into other people's things, but he had something irregular pulled up. He had a copy of a Russian newspaper dating back to 1991 pulled up, and something else. Sometimes his theories and investigations make me think, but this one seemed odd."

The Martian gave Batman an odd look and said, "Why is that?"

Batman started typing again and pulled up one of the files that was on the first page.

"Usually his investigations are usually something stupid like finding out all of the ingredients that are in chunky monkey ice cream or is there a Bigfoot. No, this one looked like a decade old murder mystery that he was trying to solve. It was about an affluent military family that was wiped out the same year that the Soviet Union was dissolved. He also had something else pulled up as well."

On the computer screen the icon clicked and opened a Russian tabloid, talking about a covered up commando raid on a facility in Siberia. Another image popped up from a British media group, telling the story that two Russian army helicopters were shot down over the Chinese border.

"He created a trail starting in the heart of Russia from where that facility, and eventually ended it in three different places in China. He was obviously looking for something or someone so I decided to investigate."

The Martian held his hand up,"No need to explain further. You know Superman's reasons for hiding the boy from the league, and why he wants him to join."

"I'm actually afraid of this."

"And why would you say that?" Asked the Martian.

His eyes narrowed behind his cowl as he said, "Because of his past actions, I would assume that he would want revenge. If he joins the league and kills Deathstroke the entire Leagues's image will be tarnished, all because some kid wants revenge!"

Nobody else was in the room other than the Martian and Batman, but you could have sworn that the caped crusader was a full time member by the way that he spoke.

"I do understand your concern for the boy, but you have to understand Superman's view. It would be better to have a super weapon in our custody that we could help over time, rather than someone on the outside that can kill us all."

Under Batman's mask, the man was questioning any reason on bringing him here. What the Manhunter was saying was to control the guy instead of treat him like a human being. He hoped that Marcas would never receive the invitation, because he would be put back into the hell he escaped almost a month ago.

(In Metropolis a few days later)

Oleg had just come back from his unbelievable day of Christmas shopping. He had so much in his hands that he couldn't see over it. Most of it was decorations and things for gifts, the rest was two things that Oleg had done for Marcas behind his back for Christmas. He had bought a red leather jacket that had a zipper around the waist, where you could put on an attachment that turned the jacket into a trench coat. The other thing that he had was from the local gunsmith. While Marcas was down for the count, he still had his rucksack and other things on his person. When Oleg rummaged through there he found two gun metal grey desert eagles, that had bloodstains on them. He realized that the weapons contained value, and he could've sold them but didn't. Instead he went to the local gunsmith and had both of the guns chrome plated, something that doesn't change the operation of the weapons, only the looks.

After Oleg set all of his purchases on the table, he looked all around the apartment for Marcas. When he couldn't find him he went back into the kitchen to grab everything that he bought. He reached down and as he was picking the first bag up, he could hear keys turning in the lock. Oleg had pounds of purchases that he struggled to even bring to the door, and realized that he couldn't toss everything in his room fast enough.

"Uuuh, Marcas is that you?" Yelled Oleg.

"Da, I just got back from work and I have an incredible surprise."

He had to think of something and fast...

"Marcas don't come in...I'm naked!"

He heard the keys stop turning. He quickly turned and grabbed everything that he could in his hands and tossed them in his room. He looked over to the table and pulled the table cloth off and threw the checkered pattern square on top of everything else.

"You can come in now."

Marcas came in, in his work uniform with a grin on his face. Oleg didn't know what the boy was smiling about. It could've been Oleg being naked, and Marcas was laughing at the possibility of the old man running around in his birthday suit, or was it something else.

"What are you smiling about?"

Marcas held up something in his hand and showed it to Oleg.

"Do you know who this letter is from."

The old man shrugged, "Your boss, and he sent you your first paycheck."

Marcas face palmed, "No, besides that doesn't come until next week."

The old man scratched his chin as he watched Marcas open the envelope..

"Oleg, this letter is from the Justice League."

He opened the paper inside and quickly scanned over it. Looking at the piece of paper his face changed from the look of surprise when saw who the letter was from, to humongous smile that he couldn't contain. All of a sudden, Marcas leaped on Oleg and hugged him.

"Merry Christmas Oleg! WOOOHOO!"

As Marcas bounced around, Oleg took out his reading glasses and read the top of the page.

"_Mr. Valitov, We here in the Justice League formally invite you to the Hall of Justice in Washington DC, to see if you are qualified to join the justice league_."

He read further and smiled as he thought to himself.

"_Well, I guess that he'll find good use out of his Christmas gifts and soon_."

He laughed to himself as he saw Marcas still running around the room, and cheering. He should be, because soon he'll be joining the greatest group of heroes on earth.

**Merry Christmas everybody and a happy new year! This chapter gave a little spotlight on how the Justice League feels about Marcas, how he was found, and a plan to keep Marcas and his lethal abilities in check. Will this plan work? Will the Red Crosshairs become a member of the league? And what what do you think the price was for those chrome plated pistols...Stay tuned for another epic episode of epic ness of THE RED CROSSHAIRS!**


	9. On the way to the airport

**I think that I got everything that I wanted for Christmas. A new chapter before Christmas and assassins creed three. I'm looking forward to play it and in the mean time post a few new chapters. Enjoy!**

_He looked down at his feet and saw a tattered city. Down below there were apartments that were boarded up. Buildings that had seen their better days in times before him, times when the city thrived. As he could judge, the town was collapsing, and to his surprise there were no anarchists out in the streets._

_'How could a city let itself fall so low and not a single soul do anything about it.' he thought to himself ._

_He looked further around his environment paused for a moment. He heard something that sounded like screaming a few blocks away. His ears could have been playing tricks on him, but curiosity was always there to poke him in his back. _

_He leaped from rooftop to rooftop, using something as he was told was parkour to make it to an open roof where he heard the scream. As he walked up to a triangular glass door on the roof, he noticed that a panel was open and looked inside. There he saw a frightening sight. A man wearing a gas mask was chasing a woman and two children around with a butchers knife. He hopped down to help them, but was stopped in midair._

_**"WAKE UP"**  
_

Marcas bolted up from his bed with a cold sweat covering his form. He looked around at his surroundings and saw that he was in his room at Oleg's apartment. He fell back onto his pillow and stared at the ceiling.

''So it was all a dream?" he said as he looked at a clock.

It was three o'clock in the morning, and he just woke up from an unexplainable nightmare. He couldn't believe what had happened in his sleep, but he knew the difference between reality and his unconscious mind. He laid his head back on his pillow to try to go back to sleep because today his life was going to change for the better. Eight hours from now he would be at Metropolis international airport to take the first flight to Washington DC, the home of the Hall of Justice.

Just a couple of days before he was working at the local flower shop, making all that he could from delivering bouquets and floral arrangements. Now he he was looking at becoming a hero, becoming somebody that people could look up to who don't have such a person in their lives. Marcas didn't admit it to anybody in the past, but he saw himself becoming something similar to superman, except without the super strength or the ability to fly.

As he laid back on the pillow he looked at the blank ceiling above, just trying to imagine of what the Hall would look like.

(6 hours later)

For the past two days Marcas had packed for his trip to the Hall of Justice, well, everything that he owned that is. Of course everything that he owned had expanded from his two pistols and bloody clothing, to a full closet full of flannel shirts and blue jeans. He didn't like to be too extravagant, plus he didn't go to anything that required him to dress formal, so it was easy to pack for the trip.

He brought all of his luggage downstairs to a waiting cab that would take him to the airport. He made a few trips and thought that he had brought everything down when Oleg came outside.

"Marcas, I think that you left something in your room."

Marcas looked in the cab's trunk and saw the few suitcases sitting there, "What did I forget? I have all of my clothing, electronic devices, medical supplies..."

"Listen to me boy, you don't want to forget whats up there." Marcas shrugged his shoulders and walked past Oleg back into the building.

As he walked up the stairs, he thought about the short time that he had spent in Metropolis. He remembered the first time that he went to see his first sports event, which featured an awesome halftime show. He looked back on the first job that he got, and maybe his last with the local flower shop, and how the owner's daughter relentlessly flirted with him. Even with the short time that he had spent in the city, a lot had happened.

He reached the top floor and saw that the door to Oleg's apartment was still open. Walking in he could see the open door to his bedroom, and walked in to see what was lying in wait. As he looked down upon his bed he could see the red coat that Oleg got him for Christmas, as well as a few other things beside it.

"Are you surprised?" a familiar voice said from behind.

Marcas turned around and saw Oleg standing there, with his hands behind his back.

"What is all this?" Marcas asked.

"All of that my boy is what you will need if you join the league."

Marcas looked carefully at what was spread out before him on the bed. The object on the far left was a bullet proof vest with black, white, and grey camouflage. The next object looked like a full body suit, and it was. It had the same color scheme as the vest, and it had quite a few pockets for storage sewn into it. The object after that was a wooden box with a mahogany finish and a golden trim. He looked at this one more than the others just because of the sheer mystery, that and couldn't open the stupid thing.

"Do you need help with that?" asked Oleg.

Marcas scoffed, "Do you have a key?"

The old man brought one of his hands in front of Marcas and revealed what he had been hiding, a little key. The younger of the two took it and opened the box, and gazed on the contents inside. What he saw shocked him. There were two desert eagles in the case, and from what he could tell, they must have been expensive. Each had chrome plating, and intricate designs put into them. The last thing to catch his eye was the pair of sunglasses that sat at the back of the container.

"Wow, I..I mean I didn't expect this...um."

"That isn't all Marcas, you didn't even bother to open the case to you right."

The last things on the end of the bed were a bunch of pads, which were the same color as the full body suit and the vest. He picked up and tried them on with the rest of the costume and looked at himself in the mirror. To tell you the truth he looked like he was ready to take on the world, and maybe something more. He turned to thank Oleg, and was caught by the old man in a lung-squeezing bear hug .

"You didnt even ask if I liked everything." Marcas said in a pained tone.

"I didn't have to, I could just look at the look on your face and judge by that."

Marcas scratched the back of his head, "You know, this is a nice costume and all, but when I get there, what do I call myself by?"

A grin appeared on Oleg's face as he guided Marcas back to the full body mirror.

"Do you remember when you woke up, and I told you about your crazy eyes?"

Marcas nodded, "Da, I didn't even ask how you knew about them."

"Let me tell you something, when you first arrived here your eyes were still shut. They wouldn't open, even when I tried to get you to wake up. For three days I tried to wake you up, and you didn't even budge, personally I thought that you would be out forever, that was until the fourth day."

Marcas narrowed his eyes as he looked at himself in the mirror. "What happened?"

"I had just gotten back from the early bird special at the local diner. I was wide awake, and ready to read the paper in the kitchen, when I heard someone talking. I sat there and tried to find out where it was coming from, when it got louder. It pointed me to your room where you were, grasping the sheets with your eyes wide open. God almighty, I had never seen eyes like that in my life."

"What was I saying."

"What?" replied Oleg

"What was I saying?"

Oleg lowered his head and closed his eyes.

"You were crying while you were saying it, but you were talking about not being able to save people. Not being able to save your mother, your father, many nameless faces, Andrei, and finally Tasha.''

At that last name Marcas stopped him, "You need to say no more."

"Actually that was it. After you said that you were sorry for everything you kept on crying." He sighed, "All that I could do was hold you in my arms, like a child that just lost something. I couldn't believe that you had lost so much, and were still this young. But, that's enough about the sadness, now let's get to what I decided to name you."

"What did you choose?"

Oleg stood behind Marcas and reached around his face, to where he was pointing at his eyes.

"The Red Crosshairs."

Marcas stood there for a moment and stared at his eyes for a moment.

"The Red Crosshairs...I like it."

The old man patted him on the back, "I knew that you would like it besides, it fits you with those deadly accurate powers of yours."

Marcas nodded in agreement and hugged Oleg's neck, "Thank you. Not just for these gifts, but also for everything that you have done for me."

"You're welcome, now let's get you to that cab.''

The two walked out of the room, one leaving for good.

(Downstairs)

By the time that they had reached the taxi cab, they had said their goodbyes, and Marcas was sent on his way to the airport. Of course he hadn't taken off all of his gear yet, which raised the cab driver's attention.

"So uh, I heard that you're gonna be joinin the Justice league, am I right."

Marcas looked up from the box that he was holding to answer, "That's correct."

"Wow, I mean that's once in a lifetime for ya there kid. So, what's your name?"

"I am the Red Crosshairs." replied Marcas.

"The Red Crosshairs eh? Well that sounds very military."

Marcas raised his brow in confusion, "You make that sound like it's bad."

"Well.." the driver said as he scratched his head, "no offense, but I've seem the League in action before. Let me tell ya, that name of yours sounds like you belong fightin um.''

"But I won't"

"I know ya won't kid, I'm just sayin."

The cab pulled to a stop at an intersection, as the light turned red. The cab driver adjusted his mirror and saw the look on Marcas's face.

"Let's change the subject. So do you know where you're going when you get to the airport?"

Marcas's face lit up, "Da, terminal A, flight 111 to Washington DC."

The driver up front nodded, "Ya know where terminal A is right?"

Marcas shook his head, "No, where is it?"

"All right, once you go in through security you follow the main hallway to a fork. Now you have two choices, you either go left or you go right. Between the two I would say to go right, because going left sends ya through the food court, and trust me you wouldn't want to go down that way. Today is rush hour for people coming home from christmas and that place is gonna be packed."

"Ok, but how do I get through security?"

The cab driver looked at the passenger in his back seat through the rearview mirror, "Uh, ya change your clothes."

"I know that, but wouldn't it be odd if I walked in like I am and changed in the airport?"

The cab driver shrugged his shoulders, "Nah, I'm sure that metropolis international has seen it's fair share of costumed people like yaself, besides you..."

The driver stopped in mid sentence and turned his attention to the airport just ahead. Seeing the driver move his head to see what was going on up ahead Marcas too looked at the scene unfolding before them, and stared ahead.

At the gate where Marcas was to be dropped off was a huge gathering of photographers and camera crews. It couldn't have been all the people coming home from the holidays, more or less an accident. They had all gathered around something there at the gate, but neither the driver or Marcas could tell who it was. As the swarm of people and flashes continued, the cab cam to a sudden stop.

The cab driver put the car in park and turned to face Marcas, "Looks like you might be running into somebody famous."

Marcas nodded, "Da, I think that I'm in for a treat today."

He reached in his pocket and pulled out a twenty dollar bill and handed it to the driver. He opened the door on the side farthest from the crowd and walked outside the car to the trunk where his things were stored. As the trunk popped open, he quickly reached inside and grabbed as many suitcases as he could. As he put the last suitcase on top of the pile in his hands he tried to reach out for the back of the cab to shut the trunk, and as he was doing so the crudely stacked pile started leaning towards the street.

Marcas felt the sudden shift in weight and fell where the suitcases were falling, right into the street. He fell on his back and tried to reach for the suitcases that had fallen in the street, but realized that his arms were too short. A weight fell somewhere in him, knowing that those suitcases had his favorite flannel shirts and a few other gifts from Oleg. He couldn't allow all of that to be smashed.

He got up on his knees and leaped out into the middle of the road. His weight was able to throw him right on top of the luggage sitting in the middle of the road, but his ears picked up an unexpected tangent in the equation, a tractor trailer. The man realized that he couldn't save both his life and his luggage at once and had to make a choice, so he chose the luggage. He estimated in his mind the time of impact for the tractor trailer to his body, and calculated that he couldn't get out of the way in time. So he balled up like an armadillo in the middle of the road, just hoping that the tractor trailer would by some miracle start flying.

He counted in his mind, '_five, four, three, two, one...one_'

He repeated the number in his head for a moment, then thought, '_Well, where is it_?'

Marcas slowly opened his eyes and pulled himself out of the fetal position and looked all around him. The tractor trailer was gone, and for some reason those busy reporters at the gate were all staring just above him. So he looked up, and when he did he nearly dropped his luggage again. Hovering twenty feet over his head, with the tractor trailer above was none other than Supergirl.

He sat there for a moment and stared at her from below, as she held the vehicle with one hand. He couldn't see her face from the angle he was looking from , but he could tell who it was from her physique, and her hair. The girl above had expected to get ambushed by the press on her return to Metropolis and save somebody's life, but not as fast as it happened. Of course life always has it's hand on the fast forward button.

Supergirl came down from where she was and carefully placed the tractor trailer on the road ahead, smiling at the man kneeling the road. Marcas watched in shock at how she carefully placed down the five ton vehicle down without a strain or a sweat. He watched carefully as she moved what seemed to be a strand of hair out of her face, and showed her perfect complexion to all who could see. Marcas was lost for words as she stood in front of him and held out her hand.

"You ok?" she asked.

He just sat there and stared at her for a moment, "Uh, all right?"

Marcas nodded, "Good, I'm supergirl by the way."

Marcas gave her his hand, and was almost tossed in the air. "I'm Marcas, Marcas Valitov."

"Well, well, well, I found my man."

(one hour later in the terminal)

Marcas had to be persuaded that his flight hadn't left too early and that he would make it to DC in time. He nearly had a fit every time he looked at his watch and Supergirl had to console him. She got see just how much all of this meant to somebody joining the league, of course not with as much enthusiasm as Marcas had shown.

When she saw the look on his face as they approached the gate, she smiled. Parked outside wasn't your average private jet plane, but a marvel of modern technology. The Justice League had sent one of their own shuttles to pick him up. To Super girl this was standard procedure and everything went through the same course, but for Marcas, it was like rolling out the red carpet. In all of his life, with the exception of his home, he had never been treated so nicely by anyone before. Obviously the league welcomes all with open arms, and obviously they want to make sure that they are properly welcomed, with all that has gone on in the past hour.

Going through the tunnel Marcas could see the side of the small craft, and some pilots inside that were dressed in jumpsuits. Even inside the craft the league spared not even one dime on the interior. The ship was small, but it was built to take damage and dish it out.

To his right Marcas could see Supergirl buckle in on the other side of the vehicle, and give a thumbs up to the pilot up front. He expected to be taxied onto the runway and eventually take off, but was caught by surprise when he heard jets revving. The aircraft could take off vertically, even it did take a few minutes. Soon the engines changed postion and they were off.

**I really wanted to post something sooner, but with Christmas and New Years, and all of the gifts that I received...yeah, it was difficult to squeeze a chapter out. Anyways, I hope that I didn't leave anybody waiting this whole time and I hope that it was enjoyable. UNTIL NEXT TIME!**


	10. The Hall

**Last chapter was supposed to be longer than it was, but since I hadn't posted anything in a week I had to do something. Anyways, I've been thinking about awesome plans for the future of this story and i've been brainstorming ideas for a while, so in the near future expect an announcement of my plan. Warning! It could be evil Bwahahahaha!...or I could be kidding. Also I decided to change it to a regular fic because the crossover wasn't necessary. I hope that the fic is still easy to find. Enjoy. :)**

**P.S.(I'm sorry it took so long to update, my classes are eating my free time faster than Usain Bolt can break his own record)**

_He opened his eyes and saw pure white hallways, adorned with paintings. He looked closer and saw that they were all blank, and stained with blood. The floor beneath his feet was a lavishly designed blue carpet, that also had the red substance on it. As he looked around he could see nothing but walls, paintings and the floor beneath him, he stopped. There was a yell from behind him, and as he turned he could see a man, trying to limp away into a room that hadn't been there before. He followed him in. _

_In the room was a trail of blood that the man had left behind and a few bodies on the floor. He didn't pay too much attention to the dead and continued into another door that had magically appeared. The next room he recognized from watching TV and from pictures that he had seen. On the floor was a bald eagle, clutching a cluster of arrows in one claw and an olive branch in the other. He looked in shock as he followed the trail to a door in the wall. There he found a hidden staircase which led him to the roof of the building where he saw the man from earlier and himself. Before he could could react a flash flared in front of him, and when the bright light disappeared he was holding the bloodied figure in one hand, and one of his desert eagles in the other._

_"Do it," he said,"Kill me and it will all be over, you'll never get to really know who I am and who you were supposed to be."_

_He didn't react to the situation like he thought he would, and pressed the desert eagle against the man's cheek. He felt his finger pulling slowly on the trigger, his will not even preventing the event in motion. Then out of the blue something knocked the powerful handgun out of his hand. He turned to face whoever threw it and was shocked by who stood there..._

**WAKE UP!**

"Hey are you alive?"

Marcas woke up to see a white ceiling and what he thought was an angel, but it was just Supergirl. There was beeping equipment all around and from what he could tell he was probably in the hospital.

"Are we at a hospital?" Marcas asked.

Off to the side a monotone voice replied, "No Marcas, you are at the hall of justice."

The young man heard the voice to his right and sat up. He looked at Supergirl then at the man standing next to her. The person of interest was taller than the average human, of course he didn't even look human, but all in all Marcas recognized him from the news. He was the martian manhunter and he is an original member of the Justice League.

Supergirl interrupted Marcas's thoughts as she pressed a few buttons on the console next to him. "You know you had us afraid for a moment."

An eyebrow raised on Marcas's face, "What...I took a nap."

"That may have been true, but if I can't even wake you up through telepathy then we have to do something.'' The martian pressed a button on his side of the room and the machines turned off.

"He's right, it would've sucked to lose somebody like you on the first day here." said Supergirl.

Marcas let the comment fly right past him, as he pulled the IV out of his hand, and got out of the bed. He noticed that they hadn't even bothered to change him out of his uniform that Oleg gave him. He checked his person to see if they did confiscate one thing that he knew they would take if not anything else...

"My guns..."

The manhunter reached behind his back and handed Marcas a case, "Your weapons are in here. They were confiscated before you were to be brought into the medical wing for certain reasons."

Marcas didn't even question the reasoning behind them taking his firearms and thanked the Martian. He slipped the two shining handguns in their holsters and locked them in place. He reached out a hand to formally greet the original member of the Justice League when Supergirl grabbed it.

"Come on, you've got to see the rest of this place!"

She quickly flew Marcas out of there and dragged him around the facility to meet every member of the league there. The Martian shook his head and smiled.

"So did you get anything form his thoughts?" a voice said from the shadows.

The manhunter nodded, "I did, but we had to put him in a medically induced coma for me to enter."

"And what did you find?"

Jon hesitated for a moment, and closed his eyes, "I saw everything that he went through, and then some. I saw his parents, his friends, some minor brain damage, and then there was Deathstroke."

The man in the shadows walked into the light to reveal Batman, "I knew that you would find something like that, but Jon, what else did you see?"

The manhunter balled his hands as tight as he could, "There was nothing else to see...the boy simply has a tragic past, and has been traumatized by it."

The caped crusader knew better and narrowed his eyes behind Jon's back, "Jon, don't lie to me."

"All right, I found out something extra about the boy."

"What did you find?" asked the dark knight.

"I found out more about his lineage. The boy has been lied to about his family for the most part."

Batman pulled one of the doctor's stools behind him and sat down, "Tell me more."

(Out in the lobby)

You could almost swear that Supergirl and the Red Crosshairs himself were an item by the way that she was dragging him around and introducing him to everybody. First it was Black Canary and Green Arrow which were over by the entrance to the gymnasium, then there was a brief hello to Stargirl by the entrance to the ladies room, and a stop by the cafeteria where everybody including most of the original members were dining.

Marcas didn't know what she would do next until she hovered over the room, "Hey everybody, guess who this guy is."

Everybody dropped what they were doing to stare at Supergirl and Marcas, who's eyes were as wide as saucers, "This is the new guy that i've been talking about, everybody meet... meet." She leaned down towards Marcas and asked, "What's your name?"

Marcas still stood there, "Um, its umm...Marcas."

Supergirl face palmed, "No not your real name, I mean your hero name."

Marcas was starting to sweat, and he could notice it. He always knew that he suffered from stage fright and always would, but now was the time to grow up. "It's Red...THE RED CROSSSHAIRS!"

That last outburst got the original members to turn their heads and see what was going on. What they saw was a very red Red Crosshairs and a surprised Supergirl. From across the room the Flash could see that the situation was going to become embarassing to Marcas and Kara and rushed over there.

"Hi, there Red I'm the Flash." he said as he grabbed Marcas's hand.

"Hello there nice to meet y.."

"Say why don't we sit back over at my table so your face doesn't turn crimson" The flash interrupted as he signaled Supergirl to follow.

After that everybody carried on with their own business, as if nothing had happened. Meanwhile, at the other end of the room Supergirl was getting an earful from her cousin.

"Kara, do you remember what I said about dealing with newcomers."

She nodded, "Yes, don't get too over excited..."

"And?"

"Be more mature now that I'm older."

Superman folded his arms and gave her a stern look from across the table. Supergirl sighed and sat down.

"Exactly, now I want you to apologize for embarrassing our guest here."

She rolled her eyes at the notion, but decided to obey the golden rule, do unto others that you would do unto yourself. All that Marcas had shown was politeness and cooperation through her meet and greet in the hall, and even if she acted foolish for her age he didn't mention anything.

"Marcas I'm sorry for how I acted, and..."

He held up his hand, "Apology accepted, besides I haven't been to the hall of justice before. You know, how many people can say that they met most of the Justice league in one day without having to be saved from something?" Everyone at the table nodded in agreement and led Marcas to seat of his own. The young man couldn't believe it himself, here he was sitting with none other than the original members of the Justice League, well, with the exception of Batman and the Martian Manhunter that is.

He looked all around and saw that they were just as they were depicted in the comics, in costume and all. Looking at each of the costumes he saw how pristine they were and colorful compared to his which were black, grey, and red. Not even hearing his name called he continued to stare on at those around him.

"Marcas?"

He turned and saw Superman looking at him, a grin on his face. "So how do you like it here so far?"

Marcas didn't know what to say, the place was massive, and the people here were incredible. So he summarized the whole visit in one word, "Awesome!"

"So, now that we know how you feel about the place, youve met everybody..."

Marcas interrupted, "Not everybody"

Superman sat back in his seat and looked around. From what all had happened he thought that Marcas had met everybody in the hall, but from looking around the table he saw the guy's point. "I know that Batman and Jon aren't here, but you can meet them sometime later, right now I'm sure that you can use something to eat." Marcas nodded and left the group to themselves.

**Superman's POV**

From first appearences, I could tell that Marcas will be something else. From all that I could see, not even being a keen detective, is that Marcas doesn't seem to have PTSD like Batman suggested earlier and I know somebody that is going through the mental problems from it when I see them. I looked around and saw that everybody seemed to be ok with their first meeting with Marcas. There weren't any disagreements, and everybody had impressed looks on their faces, but two of the more skeptical people hadn't arrived yet and I think that it would come down to those two, Batman and Jon.

I was staring at the group and didn't realize it til Wally nudged my shoulder,"Uh soops, are you ok."

"Yeah," I replied, "I was just thinking about something.'

Wally looked at the line where Red was at and smirked, "It's about the newbie isn't it?"

I nodded, "Yeah, I can see that everybody here likes him..."

"Well, yeah, he seems to be a really upbeat guy for somebody that looks like they're going to war."

"That's only one thing that's getting me."

That's when Diana leaned in, "What else is there to worry about?"

"Me."

On the other side of the table Batman just sat down, with a more intimidating scowl than usual. He looked behind him to see some of the younger members flocking to Marcas on the other side of the dining hall, something was up.

"What's wrong, and where is Jon?" I asked

Batman looked at Kara and gave her a gesture to leave. "Jon is recovering in the medical wing, and..."

My face changed to a look of surprise, as did some of the others at the table.

"What?" I almost yelled.

Batman shook his head, "It seems that we were all sadly mistaken about how bad Marcas's mental condtion was."

Wally interjected, "So, big tall and green is having to recover all because he did a brain scan on Red over there."

"Right, when he went into his mind he relived everything that Marcas had gone through, including his last encounter with Deathstroke."

"Does he want revenge?" asked Hawkgirl.

He nodded,"He wants to kill him, but from what Jon could tell me he's more concerned with finding the girl that Deathstroke killed."

I looked past the dark knight and saw that Marcas was heading this way and pointed past Batman. He turned and saw where I was pointing and stood up from his seat, "We'll talk about this later."

**Narrator's POV**

When Marcas passed by Batman, a wave of confusion was sent through his body for some reason, and he couldn't explain why. But as he usually did he just shrugged it off, besides, what was there to fear in the hall of Justice?

As he sat at the head table with the rest of the original members he could feel them staring into him, not at, but in. Now that feeling came back when he passed Batman, but now it was getting at him ten fold. This time he couldn't shake it and looked all around him at the table, and saw that everybody was talking to each other and eating what they had left. Inside he thought that it was just him getting over excited, or it could be the fact that he hadn't even started digging into the sandwich on his plate.

(Later on that day...)

Superman had assigned Marcas to a part of the hall that was built originally as temporary quarters for Leaguers to stay. Now it was used for some of the younger new comers who needed a place to stay.

When Marcas went down the hall it reminded him of the facility back in China, except this place seemed more homely than someplace that was built like a prison. That and it had people who wanted to be heroes, instead of highly trained killers.

The Red Crosshairs looked at the card that he was given to his dorm, and looked at the numbers that passed by. '_203, 204, 205...' _he thought to himself as passed by the doors one by one.

After passing a few more numbers he came upon the room that would soon be his. He thought that he would have a room by himself like the one that he had at Oleg's apartment, but he was wrong. As he opened the door Thrift Shop by Macklemore blasted out of the room and into the hallway.

Marcas had heard of every kind of music throughout his life, but never one that involved so much bass!

"**_I'm gonna pop some tags, only got twenty dollars in my pocket..._**"

Marcas covered his ears and could still hear some of the lyrics, "TURN IT OFF!"

He didn't hear himself, but whoever he yelled to got the memo. Pulling his hands off his ears and looking up he saw somebody standing there with the light turned off, a dark blue glow emanating from the shadows. Marcas reeled back for a moment as a metal foot made it's way towards him, than another, and another. Marcas was reaching behind him to grab his sickle and hammer when a hand was extended to him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know that my new roomie would getting here early or not." said the voice from above.

Marcas looked up and dropped his tools. Before him, at 6'8 385 pounds stood a tall metallic being known to all as...

"Cyborg."

The half-machine man looked at him with a confused look on his face, as he was pulling Marcas up.

"Have we met before?" asked Cyborg.

Marcas shook his head, "No, i've just heard about you and the teen titans from the news."

The half-man of steel looked behind him and shook his head. "That must be old news because we've been disbanded for over a year."

Now it was Marcas's turn to be confused, "What?"

Cyborg looked at the office chair under his desk and it out in front of Marcas. He gestured his hand for the Russian to have a seat as he shut the door and grabbed one of his own.

"Do you like long stories?"

Marcas nodded, "Da, as long as they are informative."

"Good," he said,"because this is going to be a behind the scenes look on how the titans came crashing down."

**_FLASHBACK_**

Titans Tower

Jump City

Five Years ago...

The titans had returned from a flip-flopped mission taking down what they called the "New Slade." The new guy had incredible powers, such as super speed, strength, smell, hearing, senses, and a lust for blood, and gave the titans a beating that would shatter their world forever. During the fight the "New Slade" bit raven and drained her of most of her life force, her blood. They Brought her back to the tower in time, but she was extremely weak.

"I'm telling you guys, this is getting old and fast!" yelled an angry beast boy to his friends around him.

They were all standing outside of the medical wing, waiting for some good news.

A few seconds after Beast Boy's outburst, cyborg walked outside, a neutral look on his face. The tall machine man saw the looks on everyone's face, and knew what they were asking inside.

"Raven is ok..." he said in a monotone voice,"but just like last time he drained a lot of blood out of her."

Everybody's facial expressions changed from questioning to downcast.

"Every time that we face this guy it's always the same! He always goes after the weakest in the group! I knew that I should've listened to Terra!" yelled Beast Boy again.

Across from the changeling the frustration in another titan was about to come out, she had heard enough of it.

"She is not weak! It is just that this new slade is incredibly powerful!" said Starfire.

Beast boy narrowed his eyes and stormed over to where she was standing and pointed a finger in her face.

"You always do this! You always defend her, even when you know that she's losing control of her powers! I've said it before, and now I'm going to say it again, she needs to go!"

"No!"

The two looked across the room at their leader that had been sitting this fight out for most of the time. He got up and walked over to the two, a look of complete calm over his form.

"Beast boy, we all know that she's been having issues with her powers lately, but that doesn't give any reason to..."

"To let her go, I know, I know. You always say that and guess what? It never makes any sense! I mean, she can heal herself pretty fast, ok? So why hasn't she done that yet?"

"She's lost a lot of blood Beast boy, she can't help it if she's human." said Cyborg from across the room.

Beast boy looked around Robin and snarled at the metal man,"So what if she lost blood, big deal. She's healed herself from worse while she was unconscious, and you're telling me that she can't quickly heal two bites?"

Cyborg was now trying to hold himself back from blasting Beast boy with the sonic cannon...

**_FLASHBACK OVER_**

"Hold the phone, since when did Beast boy grow a pair?" asked Marcas.

Cyborg looked at a screen on his wrist and pressed an icon. A hologram projector turned on in the room and before the two stood Beast boy and a blonde girl.

"The girl's name is Terra. She used to be a member of the titans until she betrayed us to Slade. We had to leave the city for a while to plan our next move, and when we got back Terra got hers and later on she had a change of heart."

Marcus raised a eyebrow as Cyborg continued, "She turned on Slade and tossed him into a pool of lava, and gave her life in the process."

Marcas raised his hand, "Then how did Beast boy get in a relationship with a dead girl?"

Now that was a tricky question. Cyborg, even with his knowledge couldn't figure out how she could've gotten out of her stone prison. All that could be done to answer the question was to say that it was a miracle, and nothing else.

"We don't even know how she got out, but after Beast boy found out that she was alive, he wouldn't stop until he had her back. The only problem was that she didn't want him."

"Now why is that?" asked Marcas

"Because Terra didn't know him. For some odd reason she lost her memories while she was out. When he found that out he barely stuck around the tower, he was always meeting her somewhere helping her regain her memories. Soon, she was back to her old self and her old ways."

He always hated reflecting on this next part because of how it happened.

"Before Beast boy found Terra, he dated with Raven for a while, and for a while it seemed like they were getting along well." Cyborg said as he paused.

"Then he met Terra."

Cyborg nodded, "Yeah, after he met her again they called it quits, and Raven went back to staying in her room. Terra had persuaded Beast boy that Raven would dump him sometime in the future and that she was nothing, so that's why he showed so much hatred towards her that night."

Marcus was still confused, why did they split up? What could cause them to fall apart? He looked around the room for something to provide an explanation, and found nothing but Cyborg's bed and a picture.

He reached over to the frame and examined what was in it.

"That was what we used to be."

Marcas turned to look at Cyborg, who was now starting to tear up. Whatever happened five years ago must have been painful. Marcas got up from his seat to put a hand on Cyborg's shoulder, and watched as the former titan buried his face in his hands.

"Beast boy left that night, without an apology. He didn't care if Raven had died, she was just a witch that deserved to die to him. Robin left later on because the "Titans Routine" was getting old, that and Star left because she wanted to back to their home world."

"I thought that..."

"You thought that they still liked each other? No, things changed one night when star wanted to bring something new into their relationship."

"Sex?"

Cyborg nodded, "Yeah, and Robin made it clear that he wasn't going to do that until they got married. Star didn't like that idea so she left."

Marcas couldn't believe what he was hearing. These people weren't the same titans that he used to read about. They almost sounded like a reality TV show gone wrong, like a Jersey Shore that he heard so much about.

"Raven just ran off in the middle of the night, but she left a note. She told me to look for somewhere else to go, because Jump City had nothing left to offer me, so I came here."

"Well, that's an intriguing story." said Red, " I just wish that I could've met everybody."

Cyborg smiled when he said that. He felt like a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders, because of his silence. He didn't mention it to Marcas, but the media hounded him day in and day out, wondering why the titans split. All that he could say is that he couldn't comment right then and there, and would get back with them later. They always came back.

"So, do you want to help me move in or what?"

Cyborg looked behind him and saw three bags next to Red, and laughed, "Sure, besides we both need to be well rested for tomorrow."

As Marcas handed him a bag he had a confused look on his face, "What's going to happen?"

"We're going to be tested to see if we're fit to join the Justice League."

Behind Cyborg's back Marcas cursed in his native tongue, "Chert voz'mi!"

(Meanwhile...)

At an abandoned warehouse in Jump City, a small light could be seen coming out from the filthy windows. If you had walked inside you would see weapons crates sitting around a huge computer that was centralized amidst the ammunition and assault rifles, a high tech wonder that cost a fortune. On that computer commands were being typed in to delete the files stored inside, and by the looks of it, whoever was typing was doing a good job of it. This person being none other than the deadly merc with a reputation in the Justice League, Slade Wilson, AKA Deathstroke the Terminator.

Deathstroke was at a Lexcorp warehouse based in Jump City, and was deleting information relating Lex Luthor to an illegal weapons shipment in Europe. His plan was to delete the data, blow up the crates, get out of there before the League could show up, and as always get paid.

As he typed in the last command he heard a door slam behind him, and the lights went out. Deathstroke, quickly pressed a button on his helmet and activated the thermal sensor in his eyepiece. He scanned the area where he heard the door, but didn't find anything. Seeing that the area was clear he started placing C4 on the weapons crates. One by one the little devices lit up and beeped to let him know that they were armed and ready to blow when he was ready to go, But he wasn't about to leave just yet. The whole time a proximity sensor had been alerting him of a presence in the warehouse, and from what he could tell it wasn't Batman.

_'He isn't this sloppy' _he said in his head. _'I wonder who it is?'_

He pressed another button in his helmet, and before he could arm himself, a form appeared before him. Slade switched back to thermal vision to see if he wasn't just seeing things and was stunned when he didn't see the figure anymore.

"Thermal vision isn't going to pick up a vampire Slade."

The surprised Deathstroke reached down to his side to grab his choice of handgun when the figure held his hand up.

"I don't wish to fight you mister Wilson, i've come here to make you an offer that you can't resist."

Slade slowly switched back to night vision and examined the form of this infiltrator. He read his face and body language and put the gun back in it's holster.

"So you come in here, you follow me knowing that you could die at any moment and offer me something?"

The shadow nodded it's head.

Slade laughed, "Well, I must say, you must have quite the offer to top Luthor's payment to show up like this."

"I do, and I think that you will enjoy it more than Luthor's entire fortune."

Under his helmet Deathstroke had an impressed look on his face, "Tell me, what could possibly be worth more than Lex Luthor?"

The shadow snapped his fingers and the lights turned on, "An old acquaintance of yours, doctor Ivan Markov."

**Surprise, Surprise, the good doctor has wormed his way back into the plot, and a new player has been brought into the game...So, here is a few questions. What hoops will Marcas have to jump through to join the league, and who is this new guy that caught Slade by surprise? Who knows, maybe he will have an impact on Red's future.**

**Review if you have any thoughts about the story, and PM message if you have any questions about the characters and the story. Oh, and before I forget to mention it, you have to read "Rise of the Reaper" by JediMasterChris and "The Shadow Warriors" by Shadow knight1121(I hope that I spelled them right).**

**One more thing. If you want to make an awesome looking superhero without lifting a single pen, pencil, or marker, try looking up Hero Machine 3 on google. You'll need a computer that has flash on it to operate it, and once you do use it you can make an awesome cover for your story, like I did!**

**UNTIL NEXT TIME!**


	11. A Two-Faced Tale Part One

**Okay, so last chapter was a mixed bag of sorts. Red's been having some weird dreams lately, the Martian Manhunter (Jon Jon'zz) went into Red's mind and found some secrets that Red doesn't even remember, and Red runs into cyborg from the teen titans. What more could you ask for? Well, I'm gonna tell you, the reader that I'm going to deviate for a bit to focus on what happened at the end of the last chapter. I don't know how many chapters it's going to take or how long it's going to be before I get to Red eventually going to Gotham and entering the shadow warriors...**

******Also, the song from last chapter was thrift shop by Macklemore...which I don't own (disclaimer)**

**Let me just say good things take time...enjoy**

_Location: Tokyo, Japan_

_(One day later)_

The bustling city of Tokyo. A city filled to the brim with people hustling and bustling about, even at night. The sky was constantly lit up by stars and incoming air traffic from around the globe, including one flight that didn't even register on the radar.

It was a jet using military grade cloaking technology to reach it's destination near the ports of the massive city. As it descended to it's destination it didn't make a sound. All that could be heard was the chattering of armed guards below, and the doors of a large warehouse opening. The jet decloaked to reveal a futuristic, almost alien looking craft that landed vertically in the middle of the warehouse floor.

The armed guards marched up to the flying craft and lined up in a row, weapons resting on their shoulders. Each of them gave a salute as the landed craft's door opened. Two figures walked off of the ramp that came down from the side, one with a black suit and a red tie, the other with a half copper half cobalt blue mask.

The masked figure looked at the orderly guards around him and raised a brow underneath his mask. To him they seemed military almost, by the way that they were standing, that and the gear that they were wearing. His mind eventually focused on the man in front of him, a stranger that gave him only a code name, Sabre. He of course didn't understand why this man would think that he would trust him for a second, if he couldn't trust him enough to give him his real name. But he did take the plane ride overseas, so there had to have been something that guided him here.

**Sabre's POV (thinking to himself)**

_I knew that Slade would follow me, I just didn't expect the deadliest man on the planet to jump into things. Whatever doctor Markov did sometime in the past must have something to do with this. I heard rumors of a child army, but I had never even thought that what had been said could be true._

_It must have been an act of desperation for a failing country and ideology. You know, I never did get a grasp on the whole government knows best thing growing up in the slums of Shanghai, and this Markov guy indoctrinated little children into believing it?_

_Then I look at the results that my boss gave me, and I'm not surprused at all. Only six subjects survived to make it to the facility out in the Chinese wilderness, and he witnessed it all. Of course he wasn't there in the beginning, but he was the end. H__e ENDED the project for good, and even changed Markov in the process._

_Well, I hope that Deathstroke finds what he's looking for, because all that I'm here for is the money._

**Narrorator's POV**

They had been following a corridor leading to a source of light for a short time now, turning around a new corner every now and then with more menacing guards. Of course these guys didn't phase deathstroke, but rather made him ask a question, who are these people? Each guard had a dull red glow that emitted from the eyepieces of the masks that they were wearing, and they didn't look artificial. It seemed suspicious, but Slade was noticing a pattern, the red dots weren't dots at all, they were crosshairs.

Eventually they reached the source of light, which blinded Slade until his eyes adjusted. Laid out in front of him was a huge underground chamber, lined with guards and banners on the walls. He wasn't impressed at the infrastructure of this facility at all. All that was done was a paint job to cover up the bunker's age and an additional flare to distract you from what this place looked like.

Out of everything there though, there was one thing that caught his attention, a person sitting on what was supposed to be a throne at the end of the hall. Slade, under his mask, scanned the man perched like royalty on the side of the room to check for anything out of the ordinary. Of course he didn't find anything interesting, that was until he looked into the man's eyes. His eyes were hidden under a pair of shades, but with the amplified x-ray in his mask he could make out a crosshair in each pupil, both giving off a small heat signature.

"So mister Wilson, are you afraid of what you see?" said the man on the throne.

Deathstroke continued walking and clenched his fists, "_How did he..._" He couldn't believe that this man could see through his mask, let alone threaten him. Did he know who he was toying with? Slade didn't know for sure, but he wanted to find out what this was all about.

When they finally reached the end of the hall the mysterious man waved his hand and without a sound the guards disappeared. He stood up before Saber and Deathstroke with his hands behind his back, holding something in secret.

"So let me ask this," Slade started, "who are you, what is this place, and where is Markov?"

The man grinned at Deathstroke's impatience, and stepped down to his level, "Here are your answers. One, you're in a temporary base of mine, because of renovations back at command. Two Markov isn't here, and three? Well, I'll save that for later." He still held that grin seeing that Slade hadn't unclenched his fists yet, and he just wanted to see how tolerant Deathstroke could be with somebody that isn't as serious as the merc himself.

"Then why did I even bother coming here if Markov isn't in your custody?"

The shady figure put his hands behind his back and began to pace. "I know you Mister Wilson, I know that you can't resist the opportunity to go back and finish what you couldn't do..."

Slade's face twitched, because this man could read him like a book. Who the hell is this guy?

"Yes I do want an apprentice. I want somebody to carry the Wilson name with pride because I know that I'm getting older, and I'm not going take an easy contract any time soon."

"That and you killed your children out of pure frustration." said the shady figure with that same grin.

"Why you little!" yelled Slade with his broadsword at the ready.

The merc slashed at the man in front of him, but only heard the sound of steel instead of the ripping of flesh. Slade looked up and saw that Saber had blocked his blow. He saw what the man was doing. Testing him to see if he met the criteria for some kind of stupid task or mission. Knowing this he slowly sheathed the long steel sword back into its rightful place and put his hands behind his back.

"What do I have to do to get to Markov?"

The sinister figure reached up to the glasses on his face and slowly removed them as he spoke, "Listen closely and you will know."

**AT THE HALL OF JUSTICE...**

Marcas had passed two of the exams required to enter the Justice league already. Everybody, including Cyborg considered them to be the hardest tests because they didn't require any combat or technology. More or less the tests required common knowledge like math, chemistry, biology, investigation, and even how to maintain a cape if you had one. This was material that he could easily pass through, all except for the final exam, which would test his mettle.

The final exam was all combat. It wasn't going to be divded into quarters like the previous two, but it would all be combined into one. Which in Red's case, you would think that this would be easy, but in his mind he was running in circles. He watched as he stood behind the viewing glass in an observation room on the side as a recruit faced wave after wave of synthesized foes that the league had prepared. Each wave was more difficult than the last. One wave consisted of replicas of the Weather Wizard and Mirror Master, then in the second wave it was amped up to Firefly and a swarm of Thanagarians. Now in the final wave, which the newbie was in, the poor soul was facing the simulated force of Solomon Grundy, the Joker, Sinestro, and unbelievably Darkseid.

The last one confused Red until he saw what powers this new recruit had. He had bulging muscles with oddly tinted purple veins and he had a basktball jersey from his home town, which was now almost torn form the beating that Grundy was giving him. He couldn't bear watching the fight as long as it was going on, not just because the guy's strength was fading , but how much he resembled another Andrei. It all fit together in his head except for the basketball jersey, and the fact that he didn't have a huge pack with tubes on his back.

Marcas didn't notice it, but there were tears streaming down his face, and when he did he almost panicked.

_"What if this happens during the test?_" He asked himself mentally, "_What if I lose control like I have in my dreams?" _

He didn't even want to think about the possibility of him losing control during the test and failing, all because he is a little torn up inside. He quickly pushed the thought aside as an all too familiar face sat right next to him...it was Cyborg.

"Something bothering you?" he said as he looked into the confused being next to him.

Marcas nodded with a sigh,"I just don't know if I can pass this next test as easily as the others..."

Cyborg gave Marcas a funny look and laughed, "Man I don't know why you're doubting yourself. I mean yesterday I saw you sparring with Black Canary of all people, and you nearly got her to say uncle. Now if that doesn't say anything then I don't know what will, because out of most of the leaguers here she's probably the best hand to hand fighter, right next to Batman."

Marcas took everything that Cyborg said in and gained a little bit of encouragement from it, but he still wasn't sure about getting in the arena and using his guns, after all the last time that he used them he was aiming them at his girlfriend, and at Deathstroke. He reached to both of his sides and pulled out his desert eagles, looking at each with a look of mixed feelings. Cyborg saw this and instantly knew what Red was thinking about. He pressed a button on his forearm and opened a panel revealing two glowing pistol clips that he crafted just a few hours ago. He carefully pulled them out of their sockets and handed them to Marcas, who had his face buried in his hands.

"Here, take these."

Marcas looked up at to see what Cyborg had in his hand and widened his eyes. He didn't know what exactly what Cyborg was giving him, but from his judgement he thought that they were pistol clips. He took both of the glowing objects from his roommate and examined them a bit before an idea popped in his head. He reached grabbed both of his pistols and cleared both of the clips out of the guns and put in Cyborgs clips. To his surprise they fit in perfectly into his desert eagles.

"So, what do you think?" Cyborg asked.

"I'll know what I think when I see if these things actually work."

Cyborg nodded and grabbed Marcas's arm,"Well if you want to test them then you'll need to go to the shooting range."

"Ok, and where is that?"

"It's in the basement."

The tall metal man just pulled Marcas along for the ride, off to test out Cyborg's new toy. Hopefully they would make it back in time to take the final exam.

_**2105 hours Eastern time**_

_**Metropolis, USA**_

Deathstoke had just arrived at the Metropolis international airport under one of his aliases, with a led infused suitcase in hand. He was given all the tools that he needed back in Japan to carry out his mission, and they were all so small that he could fit them all in a single suitcase. Of course he didn't really need everything inside, but his new boss, as he referred to him as "shadow man", sent him to track down a fugitive that escaped his custody a few days ago.

Slade knew on the inside about situations like this, knowing how shadow organizations prefer to stay out of the light, and how some people that decide to bail out could jeopardize the whole organization. But he didn't like the mission that he was sent on and why. It isn't the fact that he's done dirty work like this in the past for other people, that didn't piss him off. What did was the matter of the fact that he didn't just kill his new boss and take the information from him. Why couldn't he just go to somebody else to grab Markov, and why did he trust this new benefactor?

He just shook his head at the thought of everything and went on with the mission at hand, hunting this Oleg down and on the side finding out what information he has on the shadow man.

(**Twenty minutes later...**)

He already had the address memorized in his head, and found where the apartment complex was that this man was hiding at and ordered the cab driver to stop two blocks away. In his head he planned out what he was going to do to get in the building, it all just depends on a few factors. One, is there a guard detail, and where are they. Two is security systems, like laser wires, motion sensors, and noise detectors, all which are things to consider if your target has vital information and is afraid for his or her life. There would be a three, but seeing that the target is in a city must mean that he feels secure.

Slade got out of the car and payed the driver his fare before he went into a nearby building, labeled "The Daily Planet". Slade walked into an empty lobby, and was surprised to see not even a single guard in sight. Funny that this building is in the city of Metropolis and yet they don't have any protection against the city's villains?

"_How spoiled these people must knowing that they have the man of steel at their beck and call._" he thought to himself as he shook his head.

He approached an elevator at the back of the lobby and pressed the button to call the elevator down.

(**Ten Floors above)**

Michael Tiplin was the lone security guard for tonight's shift, and was making his rounds by going floor to floor to check for any break ins, but decided to take a break of his own. He was sitting back in an office chair that he had found in one of the cubicles around him and sat himself in front of a TV.

He was trying to cope with the fact that his son decided to join the Air force by wiping his worries away with the latest episode of Quack Kingdom, his new favorite TV show. On the screen was a group of people sitting around a warehouse drinking iced tea and making duck decoys, something that Tiplin hadn't seen since his father passed away.

He was slowly drowning himself in the TV show when he heard a series of dinging noises from across the room. He stood up to see what was causing the noises when he saw the lights on the elevator going down the set of numbers above the doorway.

"What the hell?" he said to himself quietly as he moved to investigate, a nightstick in hand.

'**Ding, Ding, DING'**

The elevator sounded out as it slowly approached his floor. Tiplin watched the numbers draw down until he saw that the elevator was five floors above him.

He quickly mashed the down button in front of him and waited for the elevator to reach his floor.

(**Back in the lobby**)

Slade had already suited up in his Deathstroke costume, and was waiting for the elevator to reach his floor. He had been waiting for fifteen minutes and was tapping his foot out of pure impatience.

"All right, that's it!"

He walked over to the other side of the front desk and pressed the button for the other elevator to come down. A few seconds later the doors opened and he stepped inside. He pressed then pressed a button and a few seconds later he was off to the newspaper room.

A few seconds after the other elevator left, Tiplin's had arrived on the bottom floor. Tiplin aimed his flashlight around like the actors in the movies and quietly scoped out the lobby. He looked for anything out of the ordinary, and just saw a few potted plants. The security officer took his hat off and scratched his head his head in confusion. Then he just shook his head and shrugged it off.

"I've got to be tired" he said as he pressed the elevator to go back up. Then he heard the noise again. His heart skipped a beat and leaned back to look at the other elevator, and there it was. the lights were going off again, this time they went past the tenth floor. Tiplin saw this and knew what to do.

He scrambled to get back in his elevator and pressed every button that was above the tenth floor. Somebody had broken into the building and he had to do his job.

(**In the Newspaper room**)

Deathstroke had arrived at his destination on the the production floor of the daily planet, which had a clear view of most of Metropolis, including his target's apartment. He opened up the suitcase that he had been carrying to reveal a line launcher, similar to that of the Dark Knight, and a few other assorted combat weapons.

One weapon that he pulled out was a handgun that had an oversized barrel to compensate for the built in suppressor. He eyed the piece for a minute, then holstered it away at his side. Then he turned at an angle that faced the target building, and the wall in the back, so that both cables could latch onto something. he kicked the suitcase aside and was about to go on with his mission when he heard a ringing sound coming from the elevator.

'_Shit_' he thought to himself as ran to hide behind a desk.

He ran and ducked behind the closest desk which was at the end of a row, just in time to get out of site of a now heavily armed security guard.

Tiplin had stopped by the security suite on the twelfth floor, which had SWAT body armor and plenty of firepower to boot. He was ready for a fight, and tonight he had no plans to die, especially at the hands of some lowlife. What Tiplin wouldn't expect though wouldn't be an ordinary low life, he would be facing down none other than Deathstroke the Terminator.

Deathstroke on the other side of the room activated his night vision on his mask and took a peek at who he was facing and smiled.

"All that this building has is a single security guard?" he said as he stood up.

Tiplin turned the flashlight on Deathstroke and blinded him, then opened fire. Deathstroke didn't expect the guard to start shooting and quickly ran across the room while dodging shot after shot from the guards shotgun. He quickly rolled into cover behind another desk and tried to gather his thoughts as Tiplin started shouting.

"All right you brightly colored scumbag, you have two choices." he stated as he started loading more shells. "Either you come out with your hands up and come quietly or we're going to have do this the hard way."

After the last word Tiplin cocked the shotgun to make his point known.

Deathstroke couldn't believe this. He was being held hostage by a damn mall cop, and all that he grabbed from the suitcase was the line launcher and a pistol. He quickly thought of his choices that he had. He could use the pistol and try and shoot the guard first, but by the way that the guard had the flashlight aimed, he would just be a deer in the headlights. His second option was to fake surrender and kill the poor idiot before he could raise his shotgun, but with the precision that he showed earlier that would be stupid. There was one last choice, but it was crazy as hell, and even Deathstroke didn't think that it would work. But he had to try something. So he turned towards the desk and sat the line launcher on top, and aimed it towards the guard's flashlight.

Deathstroke pressed a button on the side and before Tiplin could react a claw was attached to his face, and was over his eyes. He dropped the shotgun that he had in the process, just so he could have both hands to pry off whatever was on his face, wrong move. Deathstroke saw an opportunity and pressed another button that caused the cables to retract, pulling Tiplin across the many rows of desks in front of him.

Deathstroke almost laughed as Tiplin hit every single desk along the way, knocking off computers and everything else that was left there that night. A few seconds later and the security guard was in the grasp of his worst nightmare.

Even after getting pummeled by office furniture, Tiplin struggled to free himself from the grip of his captor, but the monster in front of him wouldn't allow that. Deathstroke tightened his grip on Tiplin's throat, hoping to crush his airway and rid his world of another pest. Tiplin flailed his arms everywhere and kicked as hard as he could, but nothing could do. He was bout to give up on life when he had an idea.

"Please...don't kill me..." his grip didn't loosen.

"Pleeeease...I have a family!" nothing.

He gathered as much air as he could get into his lungs and struggled to try to send one last message.

"I...want...to see...my wife and son again." he then reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet, which unfolded immediately.

What was laid before Deathstroke was almost a family album. Every single picture included Tiplin himself along with his wife and son, and not one deviated from the pattern. Deathstroke, was not a man of consequence, but what purpose would it serve to kill somebody that wasn't part of the mission? Somebody that had a purpose in life, maybe not too many goals, but the security guard knew what he was doing.

So instead of killing this man, he instead put him on the ground and punched his lights out.

He picked up the line launcher from the desk and stood where he was before this all happened. He pressed the button and off the line went, through the glass of the window and across the street to his target. He jumped off the ground and let the cable guide his way to complete the mission

(**Meanwhile at the hall of Justice...)**

**Ten hours before Deathstroke arrived in Metropolis...**

Red was unloading round after round from his desert eagles on the firing range, and for the first time he didn't have to reload. Cyborg's little inventions were becoming more and more useful in Red's mind than the fifty caliber bullets that he used for ammo. He noticed that the stun rounds sounded as intimidating as the rounds that he used, but they left a nasty burn wherever they hit. But that didn't matter, especially in some cases that could become life or death.

Cyborg on the other hand knew exactly what was going to happen, he just didn't know what Red's powers were and how he used them. He watched in awe as Red made precise shots to the targets wrists, elbows, knee joints, and even some shots to the groin, which would get him a few marks on the report in the end.

"Hey, uh Marcas?"

Red put down both of his firearms and turned around.

"What?"

"You need to stop aiming for the groin area on the dummies."

Red looked at the training course then back at Cyborg.

"And why is that?"

Cyborg shook his head, "You'll get points marked off if you do that."

Red just smiled and shook his head, "Well, then i guess that I am ready."

Cyborg looked at him with a puzzled look, "Are you sure? We've only been here for thirty minutes, besides, you haven't even trained with your weapons yet."

Red reached on his back and pulled the collapsable sickle and hammer off his back and swung both of them twice.

"Nah, I think that I have this down."

Just then a beeper went off on Cyborg's wrist. He looked down and saw a message from a friend saying, '_your roomie's up_'. He deleted the message and headed towards the elevator.

"Where are you going?" asked red.

Cyborg motioned Red to follow him and said, "I just got a text from a friend that I made. He says that there are people looking for you upstairs."

"Why?" asked Red.

"Because you're next."

**AAAAAAND stop. Well, I've got to say that my boy Red is going to be facing a tough challenge next chapter, and who knows what lies ahead with his time at the hall. As for Deathstroke, it makes you wonder, who is the target that he's after? Who is this shadow man?(let me tell you it's not Shadow from the Shadow Warriors) Who is Saber, and why couldn't Deathstroke find him with the thermal vision in his mask? Stay tuned and find out in the next shocking episode of, THE RED CROSSHAIR!**

**A/N I've looked at the charts of people visiting and looking at my story, and I'm shocked at the numbers. There is only one problem, NOBODY IS REVIEWING! Except for Shadow knight and Daniel Wilks, I thank you guys for your support/questions and I appreciate your reviews, but I am just frustrated that nobody else is voicing their opinion about this story. If you have any comments or questions, please review or send me a private Message. Also if you want to participate in it, there is a poll on my page that should tell me about how this story is going and how you the reader feel about the direction that it is taking. Please consider what I am asking and, UNTIL NEXT TIME!**


	12. A Two-Faced Tale Part Two

**This chapter today shall present a little bit of info thats going to be necessary to put together Red's story arc. Hopefully it does, otherwise its another awesome chapter in...THE RED CROSSHAIRS! **

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own the teen titans or anybody in the Justice League...or Deathstroke**

Within the Hall of Justice it sounded as if you had time traveled back to the old days of Rome, with gladiators and fights to the death for all the empire to see. But this was no empire, and for sure there wasn't a single emperor present. There was just Marcas in the middle of what looked like an arena, surrounded by hundreds of possible recruits and the members of the Justice league themselves. He couldn't believe what he would achieve if he was going to be accepted right here and now into the league. It couldn't be seen from the seats, but Marcas was shaking. At that moment he wasn't the Red Crosshairs, he was the little boy being shipped to the tundras of Siberia, scared and alone.

He knew what had to be done though. He had to achieve his dream and become a hero so that he could go out into the world and save millions, he wanted to have a purpose in lid\fe and this was it. There would be no more messing around, no more crying over dead corpses, it's time to man up!

He took a deep breath as he entered the facility, which was one big oval with large glass panels on the sides to seat the many viewers that were there. He froze as the door behind him shut and sealed itself to lock him in.

'_This is it_' he said in his mind, '_the moment of truth_.'

Red cricked his head to the left, then to the right. He adjusted his shoulders and closed his eyes as he heard the room changing for once visible glass was now part of the wall. Platforms rose out of the ground and changed into skyscrapers, and multiple training robots appeared, soon changing their appearances into various forms of thugs.

The crowd watched from behind the gigantic two way mirrors as Marcas opened his eyes, revealing his powers to the world. Everybody that could see him were shocked, but it wasn't just the general audience, it was also the original seven that were sitting in their own private booth that got a first glimpse at Red's eyes.

Everybody was into their own conversations, including Batman and Superman which were arguing over how this would go. Superman thought that Red wouldn't slip up and kill a robot, and would pass with flying colors. While on the other side batman was taking all the information that he got from the Martian Manhunter and compiled it with a psych report that he crafted himself.

"I'm telling you Clark, he isn't going to become a member of the league, he just doesn't have it in him yet."

Superman shook his head, "He's been with Cyborg this whole time, I'm sure that he can change..."

"In a single night? You just don't understand..."

"Why the don't the both of you shut up!"

The two looked down and saw Wonder Woman staring the both of them down with pure anger.

"Why don't we just watch and see what happens?"

Since both of them didn't respond or continue their conversation, she assumed that they had listened to her for once and watched on.

******Music: Knights of Cydonia (By: Muse)**

On the floor Red had already drawn both of his Desert Eagles and aimed them down range at the huge amount of street thugs that spawned before him. He took the first initiative and ran at the crowd guns blazing, but oddly enough mowing the simulations down in huge numbers.

The crowd almost thought that he was killing them all, when the looked at the holograms lying on the ground. Most of them simulated pain, others just couldn't get back up.

Red just kept the audience motivated with precision shots on the simulated enemies all around him, hitting non-critical areas, but still causing pain. Inside he knew that as long as he kept making shots like that he would be done with the first wave of enemies in no time.

As he ran through the crowd, he noticed that he had made his way to a four way intersection and stopped. He guessed that the computer operating the simulations would change tactics, seeing that he could be surrounded from all sides, which is what he wanted. He wanted to put on as good of a show for the Justice league as possible and it was about to happen.

All of the holograms disappeared, then appeared on all four streets surrounding Red. One thing that he didn't count on was the fact that the computer spawned in the enemies with things like crowbars, sledgehammers, Molotov cocktails, and chains. He quickly did a 360 and observed all of his enemies around him, and decided to take a different approach to this.

He knew that one of the requirements to pass was a knowledge of hand to hand combat, and pistols wouldn't get him there, so he holstered both of his Desert Eagles in their holsters and raises his fists. The simulations around him swung their chains and other weapons, as they started a slow movement towards the middle of the intersection where Red was and didn't break their formations. Red, on the other hand, was sitting cross legged in the middle of the intersection, eyes closed to raise his other senses for combat.

Under his eyelids the world was dark, but with every second he slowly pieced together a mental image of the forces that were slowly closing in on him. By listening to their steps in unison, he estimated that they would be on him in the next five seconds, so he prepared what he was going to do when they got there.

From the sidelines the crowd watched in silence as Red sat there. Cyborg was wondering what was going through Red's mind right now, just sitting there, knowing that you had hundreds of bad guys approaching you from every side. Then he thought about it, Robin did the same sort of thing all the time so that he could be prepared to use all of his senses in case one of them failed. It would also increase reaction time and almost make the fighter invulnerable to any attack on the senses.

When five seconds had passed, the simulations had surrounded Red and stood there, waiting for him to make the first move. But he just sat there with his eyes closed, in a meditative state. The simulations just looked at each other and shrugged, not knowing whether to attack or not. So for a solid minute the silence continued, and the computer controlling the simulations became impatient, so it ordered a simulation to hit Red in the side.

This hologram was in a clown get up and had a baseball bat in it's hand. The odd looking program carefully tip toed towards Red and lifted it's weapon in the air. It made it's way behind Red and pulled the bat behind it's back, then swung as hard as it could.

Everyone expected to hear the bat breaking bones, but what they didn't expect to see was Red with his eyes still closed, grabbing the bat. The simulation didn't expect it either and tried to pry it from Red's grip, but it wouldn't budge. Instead it had the bat ripped from it's hands and smashed across it's face, splinters flying everywhere. The other Simulations saw this and began their attack, chains and crowbars swinging.

Red grabbed one of the swinging chains and threw it's holder over his shoulder, then turned and wrapped the metal links around it's chest. Red noticed a few attackers were coming from the right with their weapons at the ready. Reacting to this situation he pulled his hammer off his back and dropped his experimental weapon for the time being and jumped as high as he could off the ground. Distracting the oncoming attackers he landed right behind them and swung his hammer from right to left. The simulations, not knowing any better, just stood there and took the hits, eventually collapsing from the damage taken.

Behind him, came a thug with a flaming molotov in hand. Red, smelling the flames from the burning alcohol, took one of the throwing knives that he had and threw it at the top of the bottle, where the flaming rag was sticking out. The computer thinking that he was trying to kill the simulation, forced it throw the cocktail into a newly spawned crowd of civilians in front of him. For Red, time slowed down to where he had a few choices and had to make the decision with split second timing. He looked around, climbed on top of a nearby bus and pulled out his sickle ready to do what had to be done to save these people. Already thinking it through, he jumped into the trajectory of the cocktail and caught it with his sickle. Then, using the bottle's momentum, he swung it back at the simulation that threw it. When the bottle hit the ground it landed in front of a crowd of targets and blocked them off from the rest of the street. With this he went over to the group of civilians and started moving them out of the area.

While Red was getting the civilians out of the area, a new foe spawned down the street, this time it was victor zsaz and a few heavily armored goons with guns These guys were different from the rest. The Zsaz simulation motioned his hands left and right and the thugs disappeared into the alleyways, leaving Zsaz and a few goons following in suit.

Red knew this tactic, hell, he remembered over half of Sun Zu's novel on war strategy. This maneuver was referred to as the trident. What would happen is, you have a large amount of troops moving forward, and from two sides you have the same amount of troops. Now in this situation things are different because it's an urban setting. On the battlefield you had large numbers of troops, but in these streets you had a limited amount of enemies attacking you, and limited space, so there is no telling what is going to happen. Is the enemy going to open fire from two stories above to his right, or are they going to assault him from the left? It was frustrating not having Superman's x-ray vision at the moment, and what was more frustrating was the pace that Zsaz was going at.

The holographic figure walked slowly down the street, closer to Red's position with his trademark knife in hand. For a moment, the Red Crosshairs himself thought that he was standing face to face with the real thing, and what happened next convinced him even more so.

Zsaz smiled at the knife in his hand and then at Red, "It's time to add another mark to the collection." He twirled his knife a few times and stared on at Red, who was trying to anticipate the mad man's next move. Zsaz on the other hand had no strategy for what he was about to do next, all he knew was that he was the expert killer, and the punk in front of him was just some rookie trying to play hero. So he twirled the knife again, and this time added a littles speed into his step.

Red watched him from down the street. He watched his movements and saw indications that Zsaz would break out into a run at any moment, and prepared for a frontal attack. The killer in front of him zig zagged across the road, and slowed down his pace for the moment.

'_I wonder why he slowed down?_' Red thought to himself. He stopped thinking for a moment and tapped into his hearing. If you had been him at the moment, with his hearing perception like it was, you would have heard Zsaz's footsteps, the computer generated chirping noises of birds, and the clicking of steel...

"Vot Der'mo"

Machine gun fire erupted from the buildings to his left and right. He quickly jumped out of the line of fire, but quickly regretted letting those armed thugs flank him like they did. Ducking behind a nearby vehicle, he tried to piece together what he would do next, but was cut off by a knife piercing his side. He forgot about Zsaz...

The computer generated psychopath smiled as he drove his blade deeper into Red's side, and laughed when Red squirmed.

"Well, well, well, I guess that I do need to start using help when I go out and about." He paused for a moment and motioned for the guards that were standing down the road to come closer. One of them dragged a thug that had previously been restrained with chains down to where Zsaz was at and signaled the others to follow.

The virtual murder lifted Red from behind the car and held him in the air for all to see.

"Look at this, a fool that thought that he could take on an army and win! such and idiot!"

There it was...an opportunity. Red flipped out of Zsaz's grip and took the knife out of his hand. He grabbed the dull end of the blade and used the handle like a baton, and with a swift swing of this weapon knocked Zsaz out of the fight. Then in that split second he barreled through the thugs that were standing around him and made his way over to the weapon that he had made earlier, a human ball and chain.

He quickly readied his new weapon with a deep breath. He swung the human ball and chain above his head and swung it to his right, bowling over his surprised opponents. Not knowing how much momentum he had from the swing, he started spinning in circles round and round through his computer generated attackers. Red, behind the chain, couldn't stop spinning in circles and was starting to become dizzy, so he let go of the chain.

He staggered around a bit, but eventually regained his balance and his senses. He slumped down near the closest light post and looked on at all of he thugs that he bowled over and... there were none left.

He just leaned his head back and laughed. In his own mind he had meant to do something a little more badass, but he still knocked all of his targets out. Relief was going all throughout his body, but now was the time to get off of the field so the next tester could get in and prove his or herself in a challenge similar to what he just went through.

(**Hours later in Metropolis**)

The zip line was using his weight to send him flying into the room that he needed to reach, and much faster than he had anticipated. Deathstroke reached up to pull on the breaks and slow himself down and came to find out that there were no brakes. He waited for the impact of his body to the glass to come, and sooner than later, he was flying through the glass. The window did nothing to stop his momentum, and didn't do a thing to help with his balance.

He flew above a coffee table and a few other pieces of living room furniture, and flew straight into the kitchen. While on the way through, he managed to fly into some pots and pans, and eventually met the refrigerator, with his face. Deathstroke just shook off the surprise, and some extra kitchen utensils, and scanned the living room with his handgun and nightvivsion.

He looked to his right and saw a door to a room left open, and to his left was a closed door. Deathstroke went into the room on the left and went inside to investigate. It was quiet, and there were no signs of life in there, not mentioning the many pictures that laced the walls. There was a neatly made bed with nightstand right beside it, and a closet to your right as you walked in. Deathstroke, being the curious type started looking through some of the photos hanging on the walls. He looked through each one, one by one making his way over to the nightstand which had a familiar face out of the two, Deathstroke looked a little bit closer and couldn't believe his eyes. He would've crapped in his armor if it wasn't for the fact that he wasn't wearing a diaper.

'_How did he...'_

If you were able to see the picture at the moment, you would see Oleg putting his arm around someone half his age, Marcas. Before he could get obsorbed any further he tossed the photo onto the bed and started scanning the room. He was trying to see if Marcas was his target and if so, he didn't want him to have the element of surprise. Immediately he turned and left the room that he was in to search the other with the closed door. He walked up to it and started picking the lock, rather than kick open the door. In a few seconds a small click was made, and the door became unlocked.

This room was different though. Scanning the walls, Deathstroke saw numerous cases full of medals and other trinkets related to some soldier. It was a big room with a huge bed on the other side, and a nice sized TV near the door. His eyes fell on the bed, which from a distance looked to be occupied. He quietly made his way over to the side of the bed where he get a close up of who this person was, more so who 'she' was.

By the standards of your average joe, she would have been called a queen, but by Deathstroke's he considered her to as plain as you could find them in broad daylight. He remembered the description of his target though, and from what he remembered it was supposed to be male. He quickly looked around to find out if there was someone else in the apartment, so he activated his thermal vision. Everything was the same color, green,meaning that there was no abnormality other than the woman in the bed of course. He looked over towards the other side of the room and found a moving trail of heat. Tapping a button on the side of his mask, Deathstroke amplified the audio receptors on the outside of his mask and tuned in to the sounds around him. He heard the woman snoring, the wind whistling through the window that he came in from the other side of the door, and he heard a shower going. The last sound explained where the trail was coming from, just where was the shower? He didn't see a bathroom coming in. As he walked over to the door to the living room, the heat source that he saw earlier intensified, this time the trail was coming from the living room. Slade analyzed the temperature and saw it peaking over two thousand degrees. He wanted to find out what the source was so he opened the door and to his surprise he was knocked back with a blast of red energy, and was sent flying onto the bed.

He looked to his right to see if he had landed on the woman, but was sadly mistaken when she started flickering.**  
**

"You know how I made that hologram, do you?" a deep Russian voice said from the door way.

Deathstroke looked up and saw someone leaning against the doorway, but he couldn't make out their shape because his thermal vision was malfunctioning.

"I learned how to make realistic holograms from Cyborg, he taught me how to make all sorts of things when I was with the titans."

Deathstroke decided to see who this man was with his own eyes, and tossed his mask to the side of the bed. He looked on at the doorway and couldn't believe what he was seeing with his own eye. The man that stood before him was Leonid Kovar, A.K.A Red Star, former titan, and the man also known as Oleg. The tall Russian walked into the moonlight where Deathstroke could really see his features.

Red Star had somehow aged quite a bit, even though the titans dissolved just a few years ago. He didn't question the former titans appearance and reached behind his back to pull out his pistol, but before he could get out a shot the handgun was shot out of his hand. Red Star walked over to where Deathstroke was holding his hand and intended to talk to him, but Deathstroke had his mission to carry out, so he grabbed Red star by the head and rammed his knee into it. Then he unsheathed the broadsword on his back, he pulled it in front of him and slashed at Red Star. The strike landed a hit, but it just barely scratched through the top layer of skin on Red Star's chest. Red Star quickly recovered and ducked at another swing from Deathstroke. He used the opening to land a hit on his ribcage, but when he did he hit hard as stone body armor, and his knuckles started bleeding. Deathstroke from the side hit Red Star in the back of the head with the handle of his broadsword, and knocked the Russian to the ground. Deathstroke used his broadsword to check and see if he knocked Red out, and when he did poke him a few times the guy didn't even flinch.

(A few minutes later...)

Leonid woke up, with a full view of metropolis in front of him. He was sitting in his living room, but for some odd reason he couldn't move. Behind him he heard some footsteps, and they weren't very far away either, what he also heard was something that sounded like something hot touching water. He turned to see what it was, but suddenly remembered that he was resrained to the chair that he was sitting in and faced back out towards the city.

"I expected to interrogate a feeble old man tonight. Instead I have to get information from you."

Leonid laughed, "The way that you say it, it sounds like you expect me to give you the information."

Deathstroke picked up a butchers knife off of the oven in the kitchen and looked at the finely crafted edges, then he looked over at Red Star and shook his head.

"I knew that you wouldn't give me the information if I just asked you." he said as he twirled the knife a bit. "So I've made a little tool to help you loosen your lips."

Unbeknownst to Leonid, Deathstroke had cut out the bottom of the chair that he was sitting in, for what he was about to do next.

"You know, I saw somebody do something similar to what I am about to do in a movie once, except the bad guy used a tied up piece of rope. Me? Why I prefer sharp metal objects, don't you?"

Leonid knew what he was saying about blades and such, he just didn't know the movie reference. He listened as Deathstroke put his face right next to his and showed the heated knife for all to see. Leonid, feeling a slight draft under him knew what Deathstroke was about to do and tried to prepare himself for the pain.

"Now for sure I've put everything together. You were protecting my client's son after my little bout with him and shielded him until he was back to full health. Am I right?"

Leonid didn't respond. So Deathstroke leaned down and brought the blade below the chair.

"I figured out the answer from your silence. He was here wasn't he?"

Leonid didn't answer again, so Deathstroke did the unbelievable, he stabbed the blade into the crotch of Red Star's pants and sent him into a world of unimaginable pain.

"NOW TALK! TELL ME, WHERE IS MARCAS VALITOV!"

Red Star couldn't respond. All he could feel was immense pain and the burning of the knife with the most tender area of his body. His body shook and he tried to use his powers to escape, but they fizzled out. He hadn't charged his powers in forever and he couldn't concentrate the energy because he was in too much pain. Deathstroke saw what Red Star was attempting to do and knocked him out again with the end of his broadsword. He shook his head and decided to do this the hard way. He would have to search the entire apartment to find what he was looking for, or maybe he would find it right in front of him.

At that moment he saw a piece of paper with a familiar logo on it. It had the symbol of the Hall of Justice on it, and right under that, the invitation itself. Deathstroke was more than surprised that the league had accepted him into their ranks. After all, they don't let just anybody into the league without a thorough background check.

Scanning the small sheet gave him more information than he probably would have gotten from the unconscious former titan in front of him, who was still out like a lightbulb. He folded the letter up and put it into a compartment on his armor, then he opened another and pulled out a few blocks of C4. He carefully placed them around the living room to where they would only affect his apartment, and made sure that they were armed and ready.

He pulled out another line launcher, and was about to back into the daily planet when his earpiece buzzed. Pressing his index finger to his ear he answered the call.

"Yes?" the Mercenary asked.

"Did you get the information?" the Shadow Man asked.

Deathstroke nodded, "Yes I did, and I didn't even have to force it out of anyone."

"Good, good, is Red Star still alive?"

Deathstroke looked over to where Red Star was and saw that he was still breathing, "He's sill alive, but in a lot of pain...By the way, you didn't mention to me who I was facing in the first place or who this 'fugitive' that you were looking for was. So right at the moment I want an explanation!"

The other side of the line was silent. Deathstroke waited for a few moments before he really became impatient, and let everything loose.

"You didn't mention that your son was Marcas Valitov, a brat that nearly ended my life because he wouldn't be complacent! Now unless you want me to..."

"No mister Wilson, I think that you have this argument backwards. I don't owe you a damn thing in the information department. The reason that I didn't inform you is because I knew what you would do if you found out that Marcas had survived, and had a chance to get your greedy hands on him. You would try to turn my boy into another Terra or another Robin and relive the glory days, but I say NO! My son is going to live up to his father's reputation, and he is going to be the future of my organization by all means possible! His mother was selfish and took him away when he was born. She ran because she knew what I would do when he was old enough to be trained and disciplined..." he paused for a moment and took an audible breath through the other side of the line.

"We will discuss this further when you return, for right now leave Red Star alive." he said as he cut off the feed.**  
**

Deathstroke looked behind him to see that Red Star was coming out of his state of unconsciousness. He thought about what his client had said and for once he was going to disregard it. He pulled all of the explosives off the walls and put them back in their respectful compartment then crouched in front of Red Star.

From Leonid's view, all he could see was blurs and one big one that was moving in front of him. He guessed that it was Slade and tried to move, but his nerves said differently. His movements caused a wave of pain to erupt throughout his body, and he knew that he couldn't escape his current predicament. So he decided to say what he knew would be his last words.

"I know that I can't defend myself right now. I am in extreme pain, and you've nearly cut off my extremities, so I tell you this. These past few years after the titans broke up have left me broken inside. I've come close to committing suicide a few times after coming to the realization that the Xenothium used to fuel my powers has made me sterile, and without a nearby source has caused my body to rapidly deteriorate. Slade, I know who you are and what you do. What you do is kill for money, and spare nobody but yourself. I ask you in this moment to end my life." he tried to hold back the tears in eyes but even with the training that he had he was still human.

"It seems selfish, and it is, but what use am I to the world. A world that is caving in because corrupt politicians and shadowy figures with schemes of controlling the world and it's vast populations. A world where culture is now killing people and screaming at them to surrender who they are just to become part of a group, part of a collective. I do not wish to live in a world where society is going backwards, to the ways of the Soviets. I want to see my family, so please, make it quick."

Deathstroke couldn't believe what he just heard. It was a small speech and all for what? A few seconds of having his life spared? For all he knew he was already going to kill the guy so he did as he was asked and stabbed him in the chest. Red Star let out a few gasping breaths, but knew that his end was near, as Deathstroke turned the blade like a key and severed Red's oxygen supply for good.

Standing back from Red Star, he shook his head and laughed, "You were right, you were selfish, and now the very boy that you aimed to heal and protect will be in my clients hands very soon. I'll just need to find a way to lure him out of the hall of Justice."

With that Deathstroke aimed the line launcher back into the Daily Planet and went off into the night...

(**At the Hall of Justice that night**)

After the day was over, both Red and Cyborg had passed the exam. They were both swapping stories of how awesome they were, to inflate their egos, and more importantly to get them ready for the finals tomorrow.

"Man you've got to admit, when I blasted that one guy through the wall, and I went 'BOOYAH' you know that the whole crowd had to have been cheering for me. Especially all of the lovely ladies." he said as he flexed what muscles he had left.

Red scoffed, "Yeah, and after that one guy got behind you and whacked you good with that baseball bat."

Cyborg shook his head, "Yeah, so? Somebody eventually had to break through my incredible defenses sometime soon, besides you were the one that got flanked on both sides by a bunch of thugs."

"Simulated thugs." Red retorted.

"Whatever man, point is we kicked some butt out there and proved that we deserve to be with the Justice League."

Red smiled and laughed, "Amen to that."

Cyborg sat down for a moment and looked over at Red, who was reading a book. As he was reading through the pages he seemed to not even notice Cyborg sneaking up on him, but once Cyborg got close he whispered something in Red's ear.

"So what was that talk that you had with canary after the exam?"

Red slammed the book shut, and turned around to talk to cyborg, "She was telling me that I needed to improve on my close quarters combat skills, before the next exam."

"Oh really now? Because from the looks of it, you were flirting with her."

Red looked at Cyborg like he had something outrageous on his face and started blushing, "No...we were talking about techniques, I mean fighting techniques that I could've used and...". He looked at Cyborg and saw him holding his laughter back as best as he could. Marcas leaned back in his seat and sighed.

"You were joking weren't you"

"Yep"

Marcas face palmed and Cyborg broke out into a fit of laughter. Marcas of course didn't find it funny, but he wanted to turn the tables and get back at his roommate.

"To tell you the truth though, I have to admit that the woman knows how to fight, and she has some hips on her."

The laughter stopped and Cyborg looked up, "She has hips? You were focused on her hips of all things on her?"

Marcas nodded, "Da, I mean, back where I was many of the women there didn't have anything that you Americans qualify as attractive. Most of the women were flat Chested and didn't have the, what do you Americans say, the 'junk in the trunk'?"

Cyborg was thinking about laughing again but decided to hold back. "Ok then, what do you like in a woman?"

"It is like I said earlier, I prefer wide hips."

Cyborg raised a brow in confusion and scratched his head, "And why is that?"

Red Shrugged his shoulders, "For the reason of bearing children."

Cyborg could've sworn that if he was drinking something right now he would've spewed it everywhere, "SAY WHAT?"

Red smiled,"Da, I mean that should be one reason, a good reason to choose a woman. You shouldn't choose somebody because of their sex appeal, because you never know. If you are a girl, and you find some man that has a great sex appeal, he might have a small wiener. Or if you flipped it and you had a big bottomed woman and..."

"Ok sex ed, I think that I get the point." Cyborg said as he raised his hand, signaling Marcas to stop. "So, did you have a girlfriend at one time or another?"

Cyborg shouldn't have even brought that up. As he said that Red's demeanor instantly changed from something of happiness and friendship to something of regret and sorrow.

"I used to have a girlfriend..." Marcas said trying to hold back his emotions.

"How long did you date?"

Marcas couldn't even come up with the words to describe how he felt at the moment. It was the mixed bag that usually opened itself whenever anybody asked him about his past. He just walked over to his bed, laid down and pulled the covers over his head. Cyborg didn't know what was going on, but from Red's reaction something bad must have happened. He looked at the time and decided that he could use a charge so he laid back on the table that he set up and plugged himself in for the night.

On the other side of the room though, Marcas was covering the sheets in his tears, and was almost to the point of pulling out his hair in frustration. Images flashed before his eyes and he finally pulled the covers off of his face. He stared at the ceiling for sometime to try and get the images to go away, but they projected themselves on the ceiling, just to make things worse. He was suffering on the inside and he couldn't tell anyone about it, or else he couldn't join the league. So he did what he did back at Oleg's apartment and read a book. Hopefully he would fall asleep and forget about the whole thing.

(In the Batcave)

Bruce watched through his screen at Marcas's reaction to Cyborg's question. He was able to sneak in and plant a camera device so he could see any signs of instability, and he was seeing it right now. Bruce went through the same pains at that age, and that was him grieving his parents. He felt sorry for Marcas, but knew that reaction that Marcas just could effect his ability to make decisions when he needs to. He typed in a few commands on the keyboard in front of him and pulled up video chat window.

"Jon are you watching this?" said bruce to the screen.

On the other side the Manhunter replied, "I do, and I have to say that this was expected."

"I know that, it's just that I didn't expect this to happen so soon."

The martian agreed,"It didn't effect you as much because you still had somebody to go back to, he doesn't."

"What about Leonid? From the footage of their trips around the city, he showed respect and kindness to him, just like he would with a family member."

"Not even Red Star can help him now." replied the martian.

"Why not?" asked Bruce.

"Because, he is dead."

(Tokyo, Japan)

Deathstroke had arrived at the hidden base near the docks, and had an eager boss waiting for him when he got there. He handed the man the invitation from the Justice League, and to say that he was angry was an understatement.

"So the Justice League has my son?"

Deathstroke bowed,"Yes, and judging from the date on the invitation I have, he hasn't been there for long."

The Shadow Man waved him off and scowled, "I know that, but for what reason do they want the boy? All that my son knows how to do, no thanks to you and doctor Markov, is kill! Why would they want him to be with them..."

Then he thought about it for a second. His son, as deadly as can be, is joining the Justice League. If his son were to screw up and kill somebody for all to see it would ruin the league's reputation. To add to it, Marcas is suffering inside like nobody can imagine. So the question is again, why?

The two were standing by the landing pad trying to figure out the cause, when Saber came into the room. "I may have the answer to your question. Follow me..."

Both men looked at him, and followed him down the corridors of the underground bunker to a place where Deathstroke hadn't been before. He led the two to a set of large steel doors which were probably five times taller than all three of them combined. Saber opened up a panel to the side and pressed in a few numbers on a keypad and the doors opened. Deathstroke couldn't believe what he was seeing with his own eye. Before him was a huge room filled with people on computers, and humongous holographic image of Earth sitting right in the middle.

The Shadow man looked over at the mercenary and grinned, "Mister Wilson, welcome to central command, where we keep our eyes on the most vital information, and where we operate our network of spies." he said as Saber guided them to a terminal.

He pressed some keys and pulled open a screen with a picture of the globe on it. He typed in a few more commands and the computer zoomed in. Pressing one more key he pulled up a digital layout of the hall of justice, where there was a single dot blinking.

"One of our spies in the Justice League just sent some rather interesting footage from the League's meeting room." He moved the cursor over a file that popped up on the screen and opened it, revealing a video file. The first picture that they saw was all of the original members sitting around a table in a small room. Everybody guessed that was where the original members discussed about what was going to happen, and who they would accept into the league.

The Shadow Man was becoming impatient and reached over Saber's shoulder to click the play button that started the video. Everybody watched on as Superman tossed a file on the table and brought up an image of Marcas for all to see. With the audio feeding into their earpieces, they each heard what reason Marcas was sent the letter and why.

Hearing how much the league cowered at the mere mention of his son becoming the next Deathstroke, he grinned from ear to ear. He didn't have a plan before, now he had all that he needed to get his son out, he just needed to wait for the right time.

'_Excellent_' he thought to himself, '_now I have an idea to set things in motion and put my son in his rightful place. That place is to be the next leader of the order of the red crosshair!_'

**Wow, it took me a while to make this whole chapter, but I hope this will help when Red's story arc comes around in the Shadow Warriors. Also, another writer has taken the challenge to tell the tale of how their character became a shadow warrior. "Flames Beginning" is what it is called by Daniel Wilks. Check it out, and remember to review, or if you have any questions, just message me. UNTIL NEXT TIME!**


	13. A Two-Faced Tale Part Three

**A/N The last few weeks have literally been hell for me. I swear that all my professors got together and thought, "how can we royally screw this guy out of sleep and time to himself?" and then they thought of every assignment that I could do. But its partially my fault so, the buttholes that are my professors can only take so much credit. Anyways, this is what took me so long to post chapter this chapter, and the reson why the chapter itself was is so long. So, without further delay I give you Chapter 13.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Justice League, the Teen Titans, or anything Batman**

* * *

_There he was again in his mind. He was a prisoner of war, a war that was being staged by his untreated mental injury from the horrors of his past. The nightmares always had something different, something new to haunt him, or to just make him suffer. It was his own mind that was waging war against him and he felt like nothing could help him at all._

_Recently a nightmare had been repeating itself over and over again, and it always had the same effects. It was Marcas running through the corridors of some unknown facility, with his uniform in shreds. He had blood running down his face and his arms, his entire body was beaten and bruised, and his sole motivation was always the screams of pain from down the hall. He recognized the scream, it was Tasha. He also heard two other voices that he hadn't heard in a while and ran to check and see if his suspicions where true._

_The hallway seemed to last forever and always had the same door on each side, no numbers, no identification, just tall steel doors. As the bloodied Red Crosshairs, made his way through the endless hall, he heard the screams become louder, and the voices become clearer. He couldn't make out any words, but he knew that they were saying something. From the sounds of the two voices, it sounded like they were shouting profanities, but he couldn't tell from the other side of the hall. _

_In this nightmare the next part was always the part that got him the most. The hallway shrunk, and a door appeared in front of him. He heard Tasha screaming from the other side of the door, and his instincts kicked in. All of a sudden, he got super human strength and slowly pried the door of of it's hinges. Eventually he ripped off the door and ran inside to see what he always saw in this nightmare, but was surprised to see the sight before him. Tasha was naked, and was crawling over to Marcas's feet. Marcas almost broke into to tears until he saw what followed her. While looking down at Tasha he noticed a trail of blood, leading to a chair in front of a huge glass window. Marcas picked up Tasha by the shoulders, but as he did she turned to ashes. He looked at his hands in disbelief and looked at where the blood trail went. _

_Drawing his desert eagles, he approached the seat and turned it around. He...froze. It was some high tech looking ninja and he was covered in blood, Tasha's blood. The monster was standing there, staring at him while he was licking his fingers._

_"Boy I must say, you have an incredible TASTE in women." He laughed at the last part and smiled._

_Marcas didn't know who the man was, but certain he knew that this man was evil. What he had to do with Tasha was odd, but for the most part he had never seen him before. Marcas just shook his head as the man came closer and closer to his face, Marcas was unable to move. As the man got closer he unsheathed the ninjato that was on his back and licked the blade as if something was on it._

_"I enjoyed eating her out kid. That kitty cat was...delicious." The unknown figure turned around and laughed. He laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed until Marcas couldn't stand it any more. With what willpower he had he drew his desert eagles again and unleashed a barrage of bullets on the man in front of him._

_As each round hit it's target and passed through, a small grin that was growing on Marcas's face grew as wide as it could get, for some reason he was enjoying this. He couldn't stop shooting his guns that never seemed to run out of ammunition and before he knew it things had changed. He had blinked for a brief moment and within that split second instead of an unknown figure, it was Andrei._

_Even though he saw the man that he had considered to be a brother, his fingers wouldn't stop. Marcas tried everything in his arsenal of willpower to stop shooting, but it wasn't enough. Andrei dropped dead right in front of him and oddly enough still had enough life in him to raise his head off the pavement, and look Marcas in the eye._

_He said, "What have you done, you've killed us both..."_

_There was silence..._

_..._

_..._

_..._

_The there was the sound of a gun being cocked. It was Marcas, loading his gun again, only this time he was aiming it at his chin. He waited for his finger to twitch and for it all to end, but it didn't come..._

* * *

_**WAKE UP MY SON!**_

"AAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Marcas screamed as he bolted up from his nightmare. He looked around and saw that he wasn't in his dorm with cyborg, but was instead strapped to bed. The room was dark all around him, and the only source of light was a single light bulb above his head. He looked around and thought that he was still in a dream. Maybe he was, maybe he wasn't, he just wanted an answer and fast.

So he screamed into the darkness, "Hello! Is anybody there!'

There was a response a few feet away, and Marcas didn't expect it. As he turned his head, a cowl came into view, with two pointed ears.

"Do you know why you are strapped to this like you are?"

Marcas shook his head, "No, is this a dream?"

The Dark Knight pinched him, "Ow! Ok I believe you. Just tell me what's going on!"

He sat back as watched Batman walk around him, as if he was thinking about something. "Have you ever had trouble with sleepwalking before?"

Marcas looked at the dark knight with a puzzled expression on his face, "No, and i'm sure that somebody would have informed me by now." Batman stood there and stared on, while Marcas looked back with disbelief and confusion.

"Marcas, do you know where I found you?"

Marcas nodded, "Da, I would like to know about these accusations that you bring up!"

Batman pressed a button on his gauntlet and a TV screen came down from the ceiling. It crackled to life instantly to show an image of Marcas walking around the halls with his eyes closed. It switched from different feeds from time to time, but the scene was almost comical. Marcas himself knew that he had issues that weren't apparent, but this was hilarious. He would've burst into laughter if it hadn't been for the fact that Batman was staring at him the whole time.

"If you find this amusing, then you have to see this footage til the end."

* * *

The dark knight pressed a button, and the video fast forwarded until he pressed the command to stop it. Where he stopped made Marcas puzzled more than answered. The image was of Marcas slipping on the Red coat that Oleg gave him while he walked out the front door. The screen switched over to another feed and caught Marcas walking out towards the street, which was empty by the looks of it. He watched himself as he sleepwalked down the sidewalk, it was almost as if he was having an out of body experience. His past self continued until the camera picked up a woman screaming not too far away. The Marcas on the screen immediately ran towards the sound and found it in front of an apartment complex.

There were three men wearing masks that were trying to pry a girl, younger than Marcas, off of the front entrance to her apartment building. The men around her finally decided that she wasn't going to budge, so they grabbed her legs and her skirt and held her down to the ground. Marcas was wondering what would happen next, because his past self was just standing there. He wouldn't budge, and it looked like thugs in front of him were going to have their way, then the woman cried for help. Marcas's past self lifted his head up, and his whole demeanor changed. He was leaning himself forwards, and pulled out his close quarters combat weapons, his sickle and hammer. The thugs didn't even stop ripping off the girls' skirt for one minute to see the red-eyed, weapon-wielding man approaching them, but the girl did. Just as she turned her head, one of the thugs noticed and looked behind him and saw Marcas standing there. The first thing he saw was the red crosshairs in his eyes and turned to get his buddies' attention. He tapped on on the guys shoulder once, then twice, then finally he slapped the man on the back of his head to get his attention.

"What the hell was that for Keith!" said the leader of the group as he pushed his worried friend.

"I was doing it to grab your attention!" yelled Keith

"And why the hell would I want to divert my attention away from the nice piece of ass in front of me?" said the leader.

Keith pointed to the side over to where Marcas was standing, and the leader finally turned around. When he saw Marcas, he was almost scared. He would've been intimidated if it wasn't for the fact that Marcas was still in his PJs. The man in charge burst out laughing, "The hell is this?! You, you try to get my attention, just to be afraid of some guy in his pajamas? Keith, you must be losing it."

Nobody noticed it, but Marcas had made his way up the stairs and was standing right in front of the leader of the group. So as he turned his head away from his henchman, he came face to face with two glowing crosshairs. The guy flinched and Marcas swiped his sickle across the guy's neck. The other two looked at their leader, as his head slowly slid off his shoulders. Keith was the first to scream and ran past Marcas while the other guy pulled out a piece and fired a few shots, but he missed. Marcas used his hammer and smashed the guy's hand and the pistol. Then he swung it again, this time smashing the guys skull against the brick wall next to him.

Marcas then turned his attention on the last one that was trying to get away, but by the sound of his breathing, he wasn't going to get anywhere. The overweight, criminal fell to the ground and rolled on his back on the cold hard pavement. He closed his eyes and laid back for a few seconds. In all his life he'd never been in a situation like this. He and his crew, even if they were small, always got the girl that they wanted and got away with it. Even if the cops showed up, their main man back in Gotham would bust them out. This time though there were no cops, there was just a crazy guy in his PJs. Keith had never considered that they would run into somebody like that, especially somebody that glowing eyes to go with it. He didn't know what to do so he decided to contact his boss and maybe get some help.

The fat fool reached down to his side and pulled out a smart phone, and opened it to the main screen. He typed in a few words and heard something off to his right. He sat up the best that he could and didn't see anything, but he was the paranoid type of fat guy, so he got up and walked into the closest alleyway an sat down under a light. He pressed a button and opened up the main screen again and started typing away. As he was doing so though, he heard something scraping on the ground on the other side of the alley. He paused for a moment and put his phone away. The scraping continued and it was getting louder and louder with each second passing by, until it came to a stop, and when it did Keith almost crapped himself. It was Marcas again.

The obese idiot tried to get up and run, but tumbled back to the ground. He grabbed the nearby dumpster and pulled himself up so he could have a chance to run, but Marcas was closing in. Keith panicked and ran out of where he entered the alleyway and into the empty street. He looked behind him and saw two red crosshairs, not far behind. Now he was scared to the point where taking dump in his pants would become acceptable, and started yelling profanities where everybody could hear. He looked behind him and saw the girl that he was holding down earlier and got an idea.

Marcas came out of the alleyway with the sickle in his hand and looked down both sides of the street. There was nothing there for the moment until some flew by Marcas. He followed the trajectory with his eyes and saw Keith standing in the middle of the road, with the girl from earlier in a headlock. Keith held a gun in his other hand and pointed it at Marcas.

"All right you psychopath, its time to let me go and end this ok?"

Keith expected some type of reaction, but Marcas just stood there. Keith shifted his arms and pointed the gun at the head of his hostage.

"Now, you listen to me! I am going to walk out of here with this girl alive, ok? I'm not going to harm her, or do anything to her. She's going to be transferred to my boss, and he's going to take good care of her."

This time Keith expected something, but didn't get a word out the man down the street. Now instead of being afraid, he was frustrated, so he tossed the girl to the side and aimed the gun at Marcas.

"Answer me you little piece of shi..."

**_BANG!_**

Keith's world stopped for a moment. First he thought about where the gunshot came from, then he felt something stinging his chest. He looked down and saw no bullet wound, but a burn. He thought he was shot, but found out that it was a stun gun round that hit him. Realizing that his life wasn't in any danger, he started laughing. His stomach shook like santa claus, and his grip on the pistol in his hand was loosening.

"Aw, and I thought that you were going to kill me for a second there. Ha! It just turns out that i'm facing a hero!"

He raised his gun at Marcas and was about to fire when he saw Marcas reloading his desert eagle.

"So, I guess those things are one shot deals huh?" he said as he grinned.

Marcas raised his pistol again and aimed it right for the area that he shot before. Keith, having more confidence in himself pointed to his chest again and laughed.

"C'mon kid, I'm sure that you're going to knock me down this time."

Marcas aimed down the sights and pulled the trigger once. This time a bullet went sailing through the air, and met it's unsuspecting target right in the heart. Keith felt the bullet go through his chest and couldn't believe it. He was shot, but he still had a gun of his own and as long as he could draw a breath, he could pull the trigger. So he raised his gun again and aimed it down the street, but had his arms shot out from under him. He fell face first to the ground, bleeding out and in pain. He tried to move but couldn't lift a single limb.

As he laid there on the road he heard Marcas walk up to him and tried to lift his arm again but couldn't. He was done for and he knew it. So Marcas, to put the man out of his visible misery put two more rounds in his chest and one in Keith's head. This is where Batman stopped the video.

* * *

Marcas couldn't believe his own two eyes and now understood why he was restrained like he was. Batman walked over to the end of the bed and leaned down into the light where Marcas could see him.

"When I found you, you were sleeping at a bus stop a few blocks away." He paused, "You were covered in blood and if the police had found you there would've been some issues."

Marcas laid back and sighed, "What happened to the girl?"

The dark knight replied, "She made it to her apartment with little injury...but that doesn't eclipse the fact that you killed three people."

Marcas sat up in the bed immediately to retaliate, but a blinding light filled the room. He closed his eyes til the light died down and opened his eyes. He was back in the same room that he was in when he first arrived, and he wasn't the only one. All of the original members, except for the green lantern and the flash, were there standing around in a circle talking. Marcas couldn't hear what they were saying from where he was at, but from the occasional glance toward him he knew who they were talking about.

He looked at his restraints, then at the group and cleared his throat as loud as he could. "So, is there any chance that I'm going to get these restraints off?"

The group looked over at him lying there and sent the manhunter to his aid. The martian typed in a code and the restraints opened.

"I'm sorry that we did this, but..."

Marcas held his hand up, "It's ok, I would do that too if I found out that somebody had done that."

He walked over to the closet across the room and pulled out his jacket and what he wore from last night and looked at them. Oddly enough there weren't any blood stains that he would've expected from a spectacle like that. He looked back at the group behind him and saw that they were still talking, then turned and leaved without a single question. The group aforementioned saw that he had left and shut the door behind him.

Nobody could talk about what they had just condoned. They had to clean off the stains, the brain matter that covered Red's outfit from the previous night. Superman couldn't speak like some of the group, but Batman was livid.

"I had to lie to him Clark. You've forced us into something that we can't escape! He didn't stop with those three men! You know what he did to the girl."

"No, and i'm not even sure that I want to know."

Batman walked to where he stood with Superman face to face and said. "The boy started calling her by a name. I didn't recognize it until I pulled an Email from Leonid."

"What was her name?" asked Superman

"She was Tasha Marova Lokenov. She was a close friend with Marcas, and right before she was killed, from what Leonid sent me, he proposed to her the night before Deathstroke killed her." The group remained silent, and Superman was trying to process it all. Batman feeling that everybody got the message, took a few steps backwards and walked away.

Superman using his X-ray vision saw through his hands the looks that everyone was giving him. Everybody was more than upset and the man of steel could tell. He looked at all of the group that was their with the exception of the green lantern and the flash, who were elsewhere in the world.

Wonder Woman and Hawk Girl walked out without a word, while the Manhunter stayed behind.

"To tell you the truth, me going through Marcas's mind should have warned you and the others to quickly let him go, but now it is too late. We shouldn't have caged the problem like we have, and now we are going to pay for it." without another word he phased through the wall behind, leaving superman to his own thoughts.

* * *

After Deathstroke and the others had seen the footage from the Hall of Justice, the Shadow man couldn't stop smiling. During the night, he had concocted a scheme that couldn't be beat. This plan would draw Marcas in and eventually lead him to meet his old man, his real father. There was only one problem though, and it was current. In order for everything to go through properly he would need doctor Markov and the staff that he had currently at a secret facility hidden under the sprawling streets of Hong Kong.

(**Hong Kong, China**)

Hong Kong is a massive city in China, with massive amounts of things going on. There are the legal business transactions, and the illegal that go on behind the scenes that nobody seems to notice. Then there are the people that are actually there for certain reasons, whether it's to get away from the world or to do something entirely different. Maybe the something entirely different involves man made superpowers, and maybe, just maybe it attracts the attention of the Justice League. So who does the league send in to an operation like this? If you hadn't guessed it, it's Batwoman, A.K.A Kate Kane.

Kane was sent to Hong Kong by the Justice League to investigate a possible meta-human processing plant. The reason behind this is not because the league wants to prevent more people with super powers from entering the world, it was just the reason behind that led to this. There are some in the Chinese government who consider the league a threat to their national sovereignty. They thought that since the league is based in the United States, and since their leader wants to spread the country's ideals that they should make a balance. This balance would be an army of highly trained, death dealing, super soldiers, that at any moment could defend the homeland from the threat of the Justice League.

It was a radical idea, and everything seemed to be running smoothly, until a politician decided to sell the facility and it's contents to a pharmaceutical company. Now the facility was being managed by a bunch of unknowns, who the league suspected to be an organization called the light.

Batwoman had arrived days earlier and scanned the city until she found what she was looking for. From what she gathered the facility that she was looking for was underground, and from she saw above it looked like an ordinary warehouse. When she found the location she watched it every night, and every night nothing new happened. The guards would change, nothing left or entered the facility, and it was always quiet. So she decided to venture out into the city and see the sights.

**Batwoman's POV**

Sometimes I think about why I do these things for the league, mostly for Bruce. The amount of times that I had to cover for him while he and his little super friends saved the world is too many for me. I left Gotham because it's hopeless and it will always be the same battles between him and everybody that wants to tear the city apart. I'm surprised that the government hasn't declared martial law in that hell hole. I need a drink, right now I needed to focus on looking for the closest place to forget about this mission, which is a few blocks away I think.

This city is something else. Jumping from roof to roof, I can see neon lights everywhere, and yet if you go far outside of the city limits its just a bunch of poor rice farmers, trying to make a living. I just pissed at everything thats going on right now, and thinking about anything else is going to make it worse. I finally stopped my journey on top of a small business building and looked down to see what I was looking for, a club.

**Narrator's POV**

She quickly stripped out of her costume and slipped on slipped on something that she hoped would garner some attention. So she wouldn't be seen she took the rooftop access stairway behind her and exited through a closed down store. Once she was in the street she got a better look at the club, the hive.

The front entrance was one huge screen with images of dancers and the basic colors of the place black and gold. She looked to her right and saw the humongous line leading into the club. She knew that she would have to get in using a tactic that worked every time.

As she walked up to the door, the closest bouncer noticed her and held his hand up, "Sorry mam, unless you have a VIP pass, you're going to have to wait in line. Kate didn't like the answer, so she grabbed the guy by the crotch and squeezed as hard as she could. The bouncer was reeling and eventually collapsed. The other tried to stop her, but she provided a swift kick to the scrotum then knocked him out while he was down. She glanced over at the people waiting in line and opened the door to the club.

"Come on! Everybody gets to cut loose tonight!"

(**In the Hive a few minutes earlier...**)

Walking inside the club you could see that the party was here. People were dancing the night away, some were enjoying the company of the strippers that worked, but one person was at the bar of all places, just sitting there. A few people had come up to him to try and get him to join the party, but he just shrugged them off. He just came here because it was the closest place to get a drink. His muscular figure made some of the local women flock to him, even though his hair was as white snow, but even with all of the attention that he got he just shoved them away too.

He took another swig of the drink that he had in front of him and tried to drown out the sound of the music. Modern age music they call it, but he just called it loud bass and unbearable noises. His ears focused on the environment around him, even if they were being bombarded by todays best beats. As he was taking another swig of the drink the bartender put something down on the bar in front of him. He paused to look down at the scrap of paper and read it. Slowly he put down his drink and made his way to the staircase near the entrance. Two guards stood at the bottom to block off all access to the VIP area, they were taller than this man, but he knew he could take them.

As he walked up to them he flashed a card that with some Chinese inscription on it and they parted to let him through. Walking up to the VIP area he saw some of the more prominent members of society in the city and some others talking business, others enjoying the pleasures of the high life. The man that he was seeking was at the far back with more than a fair share of women at each side. Entering in the chamber where his contact was he stopped in the doorway and waited.

"You may enter Deathstroke, or may I call you Slade?"

Slade sat down and maintained his unreadable expression, "Let's just get this over with."

The man in front of him laughed then shooed his friends away, "Slade it is then."

Slade remained silent, but his contact kept the conversation going, "If you are going to remain silent, then I will consider this conversation over. Is that understood?"

Slade didn't like the tone that the man was using, but he knew that he had to cooperate to get what he needed, "Fine, can you please tell me where this facility is."

The other man nodded, "Yes I can, in the matter of the fact I have a man in that facility right now."

"Where is it then?" Slade barked.

The guards behind him raised their weapons to Slade's head.

"Now, now, now, you must have patience when you deal with me, because if you don't I can send you back to the shadow man in pieces."

He waved his hand and the guards put their weapons back, "You must know that in order to get information from me, you have to give me a reason to do so. Basically, I give you a task and you do it. You do it right and you get what you want, we are both happy and if you don't do it right..."

Slade finished his sentence, "I get nothing."

"Thats right! Wow, you really are a intelligent man."

All of a sudden the contact paused and looked around the room. He put his hand to his ear and looked at Slade from across the room. Of course Slade didn't know what was going on, but he had a hunch that what his contact would say next is what was going to get him what he wanted.

"Well then, I've just been informed that a member of the bat family just stepped through the door with many uninvited guests." he said as he smiled.

Slade knew what he had to do, "You want me to give them the boot?"

The contact shook his head, "No, my men can take care of the riff raff. Right now I want to take the bat outside and make sure that she never steps foot in my establishment ever again."

"Ok, but when do I get my information?"

"I will contact you and let you know when you have finished your task."

Slade bowed and left the room. In his head he was hoping it was Batman, because he really wanted a fight.

Downstairs the dance floor was getting crowded, and it was all to Kate's liking. The music was just what she needed, and the drinks from the bar were what made her world. She was moving with the crowd in a fluid motion in every direction. It was like being on the ocean, with wave after wave moving you wherever it goes. It's enjoyable until you see something that strikes your eye, something that can kill you. Kate looked up and saw Deathstroke in full body armor, scanning the crowd as he walked on the second floor. She didn't panic, even though her gear was on top of the building across the street. Instead she danced through the crowd over to the restrooms, where she could hopefully find a way out.

Before she could reach the bathroom, Deathstroke spotted her and jumped down from the top floor. She turned and saw the crowd parting ways and ran into the restroom. In there she looked for something, anything to help her get out but didn't see anything. There wasn't a single window or vent in the room, but there was a fire alarm switch. Immediately an idea popped into her head, and her hands did the work for her.

Before Deathstroke knew it water came pouring down from above, and every last person there decided to go the opposite direction. He desperately tried to keep track of where the restrooms were, but was constantly having to shove people out of his way. He really wanted to find out who it was, but the people wouldn't move. So he looked around until he could find an opening in the heard, and within a second he saw an opportunity. Pulling out his gun and firing a few rounds into the air helped widen the gap and make a way to his target. **  
**

Approaching the women's bathroom he raised his pistol and kicked open the door as hard as he could. He looked around and saw that it was empty and there wasn't a single place to run to. Realizing that she must have run outside with the crowd he turned and ran out to find her.

* * *

(**At the Hall of Justice...**)

A lone figure was making her way through a restricted part of the hall reserved to those with top security clearance. During her time within the hall she scanned every blueprint that she could get her hands on. Why? Nobody that was there knew it but her. She was there to plant a small bug into the league's computer system that wouldn't disable anything or affect any major systems, but it would leave a program that was ready to activate at the press of a button.

She quietly made her way to the first security checkpoint where there was a security guard waiting. It looked like she could take the guy, just from his looks, but she didn't want to risk the mission so she activated her cloaking device and scanned the hall for a vent to crawl through. She looked up and saw a shaft above her that looked like it went above the checkpoint. Taking her opportunity she crawled on the wall to where the vent was and made her way in. The guard below didn't hear any noises, and pulled out his smartphone.

The figure above smiled at the man's ignorance and continued to make her way through the vent. Looking through one vent she saw storage for alien artifacts recovered by the league. Another area had crates everywhere, and they all looked the same, but the last room caught her eye. It was where she needed to be, the server room.

Lucky for her it was unguarded, so all that she had to do was use the hacker tool in her pocket. She cautiously walked up to the panel next to the small steel door and typed on the panel in front of her. She flipped a switch and turned on the device in her pocket. Immeditely the panel in front of her lit up and the door opened, she was in.

The room itself was massive, and the one thing in the center was the evident reason why. It was a supercomputer of uncomprehendable power and it was obvious that it was being used. She looked at the device in front of her to see where she could plug the program in and found a single slot in the front. She reached into her back pocket and pulled out a small flash drive and without haste plugged it in. A screen popped up in front of her with a bar that estimated that his download would take sixty seconds. She nodded as he realized that her mission was done, and pulled the USB out. Without a second to lose she turned and ran out the way she came in...

(**Upstairs**)

Cyborg just finished his final exam and was glad that he got that over with. Now all that there was left was to get Marcas ready for his final that was ten minutes from now. He pressed the communicator icon on his wrist and held his hand to his ear. He waited for a few seconds and heard the first group of rings, then a few seconds later it was the same thing. Cyborg pressed the end key on his arm and looked around.

"Where could he be?"

* * *

Unbenknowngst to Cyborg, Marcas was practicing his combat skills with Black Canary in the gym, and he was winning. Canary was on the defensive end on what was a friendly fight, an now it was something that you would see on tv. She would throw a punch and try to sweep Marcas's feet out from under him, and he would block and jump. He would do a roundhouse kick followed up by another, and she could barely block it. At one point during the fight new leaguers gathered around the small arena to watch the two fight.

Marcas respected his opponent but knew that something was different. He noticed that she was taking one hell of a beating and she wasn't fighting back. Something was wrong.

"Look, I understand that you came here to teach me how to fight, but I need you to fight back if i'm going to learn."

She looked at him straight in the eyes and laughed behind every punch, "I'm glad that you've noticed, because if you didn't then I would've considered you a stereotypical Russian."

Marcas lowered his fists, "And what is your stereotypical Russian?"

He shouldn't have done that...

Canary took the opportunity that she had and pulled her fist back as far as she could and without a seconds delay she sent it straight into Marcas's face. The onlooking audience watched as he flew out of the arena, through the doors, and into the wall of the hallway behind him. The crowd looked at canary then at Marcas in shock. They thought that he was dead, that was until he gave a thumbs up. Everybody cheered and some went to help him back up, one of them being Canary.

"Are you all right?" she asked with a hint of worry.

Marcas nodded, "Da, and I must say that I have never been hit as hard as that since basic training."

She grinned, "Well I guess I underestimated how hard that punch was going to be."

The russian shook his head as he carefully stood up, "No it's fine, besides I needed a good spar before my final exam today."

"I'm glad to help, and if you want to do it again, all you have to do is ask." she said as she turned and was about to walk away when she stopped.

"One more thing..." Marcas looked up, "If you ever grab my ass like you did during the match, it's not going to be like the soft little punch that sent you into the wall."

Marcas looked back at the wall then back at Canary with a shocked look on his face.

"See you around."

Marcas returned the friendly wave and hoped that she was kidding, to her knowledge she wasn't.

Back in the locker room behind the arena, Marcas was picking up his his red coat and the rest of his outfit when his cell phone went off. He dug through his coat pocket until he found the small device and unlocked the screen. Looking through his notifications he saw a message from Cyborg.

'_It's time for your final, where are you at?_'

* * *

(**Back in Hong Kong...**)

Deathstroke was pissed, no, more than pissed. He was close to getting the powerful mind of Doctor Markov back in his hands, and all he had to do was bring down some red head that somehow outsmarted him. Of course he would have to search all over the city for whoever this person was, and that would eat away at time that he didn't have. The Shadow Man wanted Doctor Markov and soon, and this situation wasn't going to make that happen, so he had too think quick.

"Need some Advice?" came a voice out of nowhere.

Deathstroke looked in the direction where the voice came from and scratched his head.

"Behind you." A voice said from behind.

The mercenary turned around and saw Saber standing behind him, but something was different. Saber was wearing what looked like ninja armor, it was nothing that he had seen before. He just shook his head and crossed his arms.

"What are **you** doing here?" he said with frustration in his voice.

Saber grinned, "I'm here to help you track down Batwoman, and trust me, she is an easy catch."

Deathstroke stood there with a confused expression under his helmet and scoffed, "Really now? What tells you that you can track her better than.."

"I can smell her from here. She's on the rooftop of the marketplace down the street."

Saber watched as Deathstroke looked down the street and amplified the scope on his helmet.

"I don't see her and i'm looking straight at the building that she's supposedly on."

Saber smelled the air again, "I can definitely track her because her scent is strong."

The more armored out of the two shook his head, "Fine, you lead the way, but if you are wrong and she gets away, I don't care if he's your boss too, you're dead."

Saber nodded his head and ran off towards the marketplace.

(**5 blocks from their location**)

Batwoman had stopped running a few minutes ago. She had gotten her costume from the building in front of the nightclub but that was a close call.

'I can't believe it..' she thought to herself, 'nobody said that I would be facing Deathstroke of all people on this mission.'

She took a few short breaths then looked up, 'The question is why would Deathstroke be here. What does he want that's so important in Hong Kong?'

She sat there for a moment in the silence of the rainfall when she heard footsteps behind her. "Her scent is strong here, she is close by." said one voice

"And how can you track her again?" said the other.

"It isn't as simple as tracking someone by the scent of their blood because she isn't bleeding."

"Then what are you going by to track her?"

"Simple, pheromones."

There was a pause, "I know what pheromones are, but what are you saying?"

"What I am saying Slade is that somehow somebody aroused this woman in the club, and her strong pheromones are leading me to her."

"But that doesn't explain at all how you have her scent! How do you have.."

"I found her suit on the roof we were on, and got a good whiff of her scent."

On the other side of the wall that Batwoman was hiding behind Deathstroke shook his head. "Fine, whatever, can you tell me where she is at this very instant?"

**_WHISTLE!_**

Deathstroke and Saber looked behind them where the noise came from and saw Batwoman standing on a small wall.

"Well boys, I guess that you found me..and do you know what that means?"

Deathstroke reached behind him to pull out his handgun as he said, "I know exactly what it means." He said as he quikcly whipped out his handgun and popped off a few rounds. Batwoman flipped off the wall and quickly avoided the shots, but just by a hair. While she was landing on the ground Deathstroke ran straight through the short decaying structure and fired a few more rounds. Batwoman rolled to the side and threw some batarangs at Deathstroke's weapon, but he predicted this. As fast as she threw them, he shot them out of the air.

"You're just like Batman, too predictable."

Under her mask she slapped a sly look on her face, "Really? Because if you think about it he's BatMAN, I'm BatWOMAN. There's a difference you know."

Deathstroke almost laughed, "The only difference between you and him Kate Kane, is that you can suck my balls."

That pissed her off, "You know what, all men are predictable! They're sexist, rude, and all you care about is that thing dangling between your legs!"

Deathstroke shook his head with everything she said, "No, no, no, you don't seem to get it miss Kane. I wasn't trying to be sexist at all. The matter of the fact is, you are still a child. Yet you ar trying to fill in for the batman. Now before you go on some other estrogen fueled rant about how evil the male body, let me ask you a question. This whole time that we've been talking, where has my partner in crime been?"

Batwoman froze...she didn't see the man that was traveling with Deathstroke and assumed the worst. She turned around to see if he was there, and was met with the hilt of a sword.

The Deathstroke stood over her unconcious body and smiled, "Good work saber, I guess that you became useful after all."

Saber looked back and stared at her body, "You know, it's been forever since the last time I had female company."

Deathstroke looked at saber then at her, "If you're going to violate her, then i'm going to have to kill you."

Saber raised a brow, "C'mon Deathstroke, just look at her! She's ripe for the picking!"

"No she's not. She's connected with the league somehow, and Batman. If we do anything to cause her that kind of injury and she tells her friends, I AM GOING TO BEAT THE LIVING HELL OUT OF YOU! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!"

Saber nodded, "All right she gets away this time, but the next time you aren't around with your code of honor, I will eat her alive!"

As he said that he walked to the edge of the roof and was about to jump off when he said, "And Deathstroke..."

The mercenary looked up at him, "You can call me Red Saber from now on."

* * *

(**Tokyo, Japan**)

"Did you deliver the program?"

The figure in front of him bowed, "Yes my lord, the package has been delivered."

The shadow man smiled, "Excellent, my son will have an interesting final to take today the moment he sets foot in that holodome."

* * *

(**The Hall of Justice**)

Marcas had everything prepared. He cleaned his sickle and hammer, and checked his desert eagles before the door opened. Inside he was ready, ready to prove to himself and the entire Justice League that he deserved to be here.

As the door opened he leaned his head to the left, then to the right to loosten himself up, but the tension was still there. It didn't matter all that did was passing this test, and that is what he would do.

In a section of seating observing the holodome sat all but three of the original members of the Justice League. Superman, Batman, and Wonderwoman were going to judge Marcas's exam and see if he was able to join.

Superman was the first to ask, "So what scenario are we using?"

Batman pressed a few keys in the console in front of him. "If I remember correctly he should be going through the legion of doom scenario."

"Do you think that he will pass it?" asked WonderWoman

Batman nodded, "I'm sure that he will."

Batman typed in a few more commands but noticed something strange in the coding for this scenario.

Superman could see that something was wrong, "Is there a problem?"

"Yes there is, i've never seen this coding for a scenario before."

Batman's eyes widened, "Somebody has hacked the system."

"What!" Yelled superman.

"Somebody put a virus somehow in our systems. I can't access the holodome."

Everybody in the room looked down into the dome as it changed into a wide open field.

Marcas looked around and his heart started beating like it was trying to escape from his chest. He was back in China. He turned to escape from it all and tripped over something. Looking back he almost flipped out...It was Tasha with the bullet still lodged into her skull.

He crawled over to her and held her in his arms. Tears came from his eyes as the memories came to him of her demise.

"I'm sorry...i'm so sorry."

He held her close to him and cried into her shoulder.

"Marcas, so we meet again." said an all to familiar voice.

Marcas stopped what he was doing to look up. Standing all the way across the field was none other than Deathstroke, and by the looks of it he was ready to fight.

"Come on , I just killed your girlfriend. What are you going to do about it, cry."

That last sentence did something to Marcas. He carefully set down tasha as he stood up and faced Deathstroke with pure hatred in his crosshaired eyes.

"You just signed your own death notice, you lousy piece of shit!"

**Dang it took me a while to get this chapter it. I'm sorry again for the wait, it's that these past few weeks have not been so kind to me or my time. So I hope that this makes up for it, and I already have another chapter in the works so review if you have have something that you would like to say. Message me if you have any questions about the story at all, and visit my profile! I have a poll that will help tell me how things are going with the story and your opinions are much appreciated. UNTIL NEXT TIME!**


	14. The End of the Two-Faced Tale Part 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own The Justice League or anything DC Comics. Just my OC's**

**A/N: Check out the Shadow Warriors by Shadowknight1121 he just introduced a new character!**

* * *

(**Hong Kong, China**)

She woke up dazed and confused, not knowing the world that she had been put in. Everything was blurry, of course what is there to see when the only light there was right above her. Immediately she assumed that Deathstroke had captured her and brought her someplace for an interrogation, and she was right.

She heard footsteps approaching her from behind. She tried to turn her head but two hands prevented her from doing that.

"So, I heard from a little bird that you know where a hidden facility is under these streets. Am I correct."

She smiled and shook her head, "No, there's nothing here but a bunch of high rising towers and common folk."

**SLAP!**

He slapped her across the face with something made of wood.

"I don't want to hear any bullshit little girl, I want to hear some facts spilling out."

She laughed again, "You know that I was taught by the man himself, you know that i'm not going to give you a shred of information!" Then she spat on on him for extra measure. Deathstroke didn't take that too kindly. He reached towards a table behind him and picked up something heavier.

"What are you going to do Slade? I've been hit by harder things than a freaking cue stick before, what else do you have for me?" She shouldn't have said that.

**WHAM!**

This time the thing that hit her almost knocked her out again. Deathstroke knew that this wouldn't make her talk, but he knew that it would soften her up.

"Is that all you've got big boy?"

Deathstroke grinned under his mask. He knew that she would get hers.

"No my child, I have plenty more."

In the darkness Kate could see sparks flying out from something that he was doing.

'_He must be preparing to hook me up to a car battery._' she thought to herself.

And he was. He brought two jumper cables with him and crouched right in front of her.

"I can assume that the bat didn't give you any training with electric torture now did he."

She shook her head, "No, but i'm positive that I can stand anything that you throw at me."

This raised Slade's eyebrow, "Oh really? Well aren't we little miss invincible." He said in a sarcastically sinister tone.

He reached in his back pocket and pulled out some duct tape and showed it to her.

"You're a class act Deathstroke, you know that."

He laughed, "Ha! Well yes I am, and now I think that you're going to shut up!"

Before she could say anything back he ripped off a strip of duct tape and put it over her mouth.

"I hate women that talk too much...huh... I prefer the ones that like to get to the point and get on their backs."

Kate tried to something through the duct tape, but all that came out was nothing.

"So now i'm going to get to the point..i'm not hooking you up to a car battery, i'm hooking this up to a car battery."

From behind his back he pulled out a tube shaped steel rod. When he pressed the button on the bottom bolts of electricity shot out all over the room.

"Now, this device here was originally meant for people like you. The little miss and mister invincible's of the world that think that they can take on anything."

Deathstroke kicked Kate backwards, but in mid fall she was stopped. She looked up and saw a man with red eyes and black pupils, and a pair of fangs in a some kind of high tech armor.

"C'mon Slade, are you sure that I can't have fun with this little morsel?"

Deathstroke shook his head, "No, and I already told you before that we would do this my way."

Saber huffed, "Fine, but if she still doesn't talk after you are done with her, then i'll get it out of her my way. After all, she's halfway ready for me." finishing his comment with a lecherous smile.

Kate looked down in shock to see that she was in nothing but panties and a bra. She looked up at Deathstroke with a mix of frustration and fear in her face. He just shrugged his shoulders.

"I guess that we'll see which one works."

Slowly he slid the rod down her leg and pressed the button. When he did, hundreds of volts of electricity went through her body.

"Now, tell me where the lab is." he asked as he ripped off the duct tape.

She just spat at him and did her best to resist. Deathstroke, well he would give her his best. He put another strip of duct tape over her mouth, and slid the rod further up. The pain was now reaching sensitive areas, and he went further, feeling that she would give in.

"Are you going to talk now!?"

She knew that she wanted him to stop but he couldn't get his hands on that information. So she shook her head and waited for the worst, and in no time it came. He had reached an area right between her legs and without a word turned a dial on the device and pressed the button. This time he could hear her scream in agony through the duct tape.

At this point she was trying to escape through her restraints, but to no avail. She nodded her head a million times to the point where Deathstroke put everything down and ripped off the tape again.

"Warehouse 51, it's close to the docks!"

She opened her eyes and saw Deathstroke with a combat knife. She almost thought that it was it for her, then she felt the restraints on her wrists loosen.

"Go home **BAT**woman.." he said as he spat at her feet, " you don't deserve that title."

Deathstroke reached behind him and tossed her her costume.

"Your belt is on the roof, get out of my sight."

Without a word she stormed out of the room.

"Wow..that was impressive. Where did you learn that?" asked Saber.

Deathstroke looked back from the table that he was using to hold himself up, "I learned it from my time in Nam."

Saber was intrigued by this, "I didn't know that was in the army manual?"

Deathstroke shook his head, "Who said I was in the army?"

Saber scratched his head, "Then where did you learn that from?"

"From my time in the special forces...we had to interrogate some of the male prisoners and they wouldn't talk, so we grabbed their women..."

"I like where this is going." Saber said with a smile.

All of a sudden Deathstroke turned around, "SHUT UP! I didn't want the men to get any enjoyment from the wives of the prisoners, so I had to improvise."

Saber almost fell over, "What? To preserve your honor? Slade I think that..."

"I was a different man then! I didn't even want to be in that hell hole, hell I opposed the whole war itself!"

"So why didn't you just desert?"

Deathstroke thought about it for a second as he turned around, "I had a family to take care of, and if I was found I would've been court-martialed or worse."

Saber laughed as he walked towards him,"Well where are they now oh honorable warrior?"

"They're all dead."

* * *

(**Hall of Justice, Washington D.C**.)

Marcas was keeping his eyes focused on the manifestation of all of his pain that had materialized behind him just a few seconds ago. Immediately his powers flared up and the very feelings that he'd repressed since that day came out.

"You monster."

The hologram shifted, "Am I the monster? Am I the man that kills people in his sleep?"

Marcas stared at him, "No, but you do kill those you target for a profit."

"Now that may be true, but when the business of assassination is good, you've got to go with it."

"Good? How could assassination be justified?" yelled Marcas.

"It's justified when there is revenge involved. A death in the family that was caused by a stray bullet is one justification; another is when when somebody has been kidnapped and then killed. Here is an instance that you might recall, when somebody kills somebody that they love right in front of them, and they can't do a thing to stop it."

He smiled over that last comment, making Marcas angrier than he already was. Marcas knew what he was trying to do though. He was trying to get him into a situation where he would have to kill him and leave the league, and Marcas couldn't risk that. So he tried to calm himself down and sort things out, he started meditating.

Across from him the projection of Slade was confused. In his program Marcas was supposed to retaliate and even kill him if so, but Marcas just stood there with his eyes shut.

'_Obviously i'm going to have to do this the old fashioned way_.' it processed.

It zipped from one side of the field to the other, and got right in Marca's' face. "Why don't you fight?"

Marcas raised his head, but kept his eyes closed, "Because I know that you're not real, and at this instant if you attacked me I would be unharmed."

The program laughed and pulled it's right arm back, "Lets test that shall we?" He launched his arm forward and planted it right between Marcas's eyes, sending Marcas flying across the field.

Once he hit the ground and came to his senses he thought that maybe this wasn't a simulation after all. Maybe he was dreaming? Maybe it was a nightmare...

**PLAY MUSIC: Headstrong****_ - Trapt_**

Deathstroke teleported again to his target, this time he picked him up by the throat.

"So, now do you get the situation that you're in?" he said evilly.

Marcas shook his head, "I get it, I just don't understand why you decided to stay behind and not flee like a coward."

"I'll tell you why i'm staying you dolt...I want to see you suffer like never before."

"Really?" Marcas laughed, "Because i've been through hell and it spit me out!"

Deathstroke tossed Marcas into the air with all of his strength and pulled out his sword. He was going to slice Marcas in two, but Marcas saw what he was doing and pulled out his sickle in midair.

When he came back down he brought the sickle down on Deathstroke's head, but the man vanished.

Somewhere out in the field he heard, "You can't touch me boy!"

Marcas replied, "That's because you are cheating you trus!"

Deathstroke popped in behind him, "The hell is a trus?"

Marcas seized the opportunity and swung behind him, but again Deathstroke disappeared.

"It means coward in my language."

From out in the field he heard evil cackling going on, "Really? Now I didn't know that."

That feeling of someone behind him came again and Marcas turned around. Deathstroke threw a punch at Marcas, but this time he was ready. He ducked under Deasthtroke's punch and jumped forward to tackle him, but didn't get there. Instead he was held in midtackle by his hips and flipped over Deathstroke's head like some kind of wrestling match. Marcas's face hit the ground first and he felt the impact. Bones crunched and cartilage lost it's place, yet Marcas was still awake.

Deathstroke stood up and surveyed what he had done, "You had better feel lucky that you have my regeneration, or you wouldn't even be thinking of getting up."

The anger in Marcas was building up, and the young warrior knew it. Of course he couldn't let his rage rule him, that and the Justice League was watching him.

(**Up in the booth**)

"We need to get him out!" Yelled Superman.

Batman looked back, "I don't think that that's going to be possible from here."

"Why not?"

Suddenly over their communicators the Manhunter answered him, "Because there is a virus in our mainframe downstairs. Somebody infiltrated the hall and planted a bug in our system, so we can't operate anything in the holo-dome right now."

"So what do we do?" asked superman again.

Batman replied, "We wait."

"Wait, wait? Marcas will die if we wait!"

"No!"

Both of the men turned to Wonder Woman.

"He needs to do this, he needs to tackle the thing that has been haunting him."

Superman finally realized what they were saying, "He needs to face Deathstroke."

(**Back to Marcas**)

Back on the ground, there wasn't much of a fight going on. It was raining, and Deathstroke was beating Marcas around like a rag doll. It seemed that he wasn't going to do a thing to change it.

"Come on, GET UP!"

Marcas just stayed there on the ground.

"I know that you can fight me and I know for a fact that you're afraid, but that is no excuse to do what you are doing right now. So get up and fight me!"

Marcas felt his regeneration abilities kicking in, and slowly rose from his spot in the ground.

"You know what I realized after fearing you for so long?" said Marcas as he stood up.

"I realized that you are a coward that likes to hide behind other people. You may be a great fighter, but you like to use apprentices to meet your own ends."

The virtual villain didn't wait a single moment to reply and brought it's broadsword down on Marcas. The red crosshairs dodged the strike to the side and pulled out his sickle and hammer. Deathstroke swung his blade again, this time Marcas caught it. He used his sickle to catch Deathstroke's blade, and when the opportunity came he used his hammer to smash his opponent to the ground.

Deathstroke tried to get up, but Marcas had enough of being the punching bag. So he used his hammer like a golf club and whacked Deathstroke across the field.

In mid-air, Deathstroke tried to stop himself, but before he could reach for the earth beneath him, Marcas had caught up with him and readied for another strike. Deathstroke lifted his arms, in an attempt to block the blow and failed.

Marcas buried Deathstroke into a self made crater and didn't hesitate to pour it on.

Putting both the sickle and hammer back in their holsters, he picked Deathstroke up with both arms and tossed him as high as he could.

He watched his enemy as he went up, then gravity pulled him back down. He readied for a punch that would surely end this fight and when Deathstroke came close enough, he sent the hologram flying across the field.

The only thing that stopped it was the tree that was now broken in half on the other side of the holodome.

The members of the league, the only ones there, saw the raw power that Marcas had displayed in shock. Compared to the other two members with him, Batman was shaking his head.

Superman, meanwhile was impressed by what he saw,"Do you see now Bruce, he's finally overcoming his fear."

Batman turned to face his friend, "That isn't conquering his fear, that's just venting all the pent up rage that he has."

A door opened behind them, "I agree...the boy is more or less is defeating a virtually made punching bag."

The whole group turned to see the martian manhunter with a burned up USB drive in his hand.

"What's that?" asked Wonder Woman.

The martian tossed to Batman for inspection, "It's a military grade USB drive with some interesting hardware."

The Dark Knight split the device in half and looked inside at the burnt circuitry. There wasn't anything unusual that he could see other than a high tech circuit board that he could see inside.

"Was this in the server room?"

The martian nodded, "Yes, I only found that half of it. The rest had spontaneously combusted."

Batman looked at the device a little more then put it away in one of the pouches on his belt. "I'm going to have to examine this a little further when I get back to the cave. Right now we need to see Marcas."

(**In the Holodome**)

Marcas stood over the hologram that he had just sent into the next century with his bare fist, and he was elated. After all this time that he had held all of that anger in, that one punch seemed to have taken some of it off.

He put his boot on Deathstroke's unconscious body and leaned down to where the monster could hear him.

"I know that you're not the real Deathstroke...I know that you're just a hologram with something to say, but hear me now...If you are anything like the man himself, then I will snap his back easier than a child can snap a twig. HA!"

As stood up to look at his virtual foe, a hand grabbed his ankle and pulled him to the ground. Before he knew it, the once unconscious body in front of him was now on top of him.

"I have a message for you child...Don't trust those that are opening their arms to you. They are as worse liars as those that bind their own "friends" in chains and imprison them."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

The hologram leaned down and whispered, "Believe nothing, question everything."

A few seconds later a door on the other side of the room opened and the field around him turned into curved steel walls and giant windows. He looked up to see Superman, Wonder Woman, and the Martian Manhunter walking towards him.

As he stood up he asked, "Did I pass?"

Superman nodded, "Marcas, i've never seen a better final like this."

The young Russian smiled and shook hands with everybody, "Finally, I have achieved one of my dreams."

"One of your dreams?"

Marcas looked over to Wonder Woman and nodded, "Da, my other dream is to someday find that one special person to share the rest of my life with."

"I think that we can all say that we share that one." Superman said as he put his hand on Marcas' shoulder. "Come on, we need to get you fully instated in the league."

Marcas raised a brow in confusion, "But I just took the final."

Superman nodded, "Yes you did, and now you get to experience the joy of paperwork."

* * *

Back in Hong Kong, Deathstroke was observing the warehouse that Batwoman had been observing just a few hours earlier.

He pressed two fingers on the side of his mask, "Saber, do you see an entrance?"

There was a little bit of static, "No, I don't see anywhere that we can get in without alerting someone."

"Any ventilation shafts?"

"Yes there are, and I tried to get into one myself, but the stupid things are filled with laser tripwires."

Deathstroke was not pleased, "So how the hell do we get in there?"

The line was silent. Hearing that, he knew that there wasn't an easy way in. He looked down the street to see if there was something that they could use and found a few garbage cans.

'_I can take down Batwoman, but I can't even get into a stupid warehouse_.'

He shook his head and stepped away from the ledge.

"Deathstroke!"

Deathstroke opened his communicator again, "What is it?"

"I think I might have found a way in."

He quickly turned towards the street and saw nothing.

"There are two trucks headed your way, east from your position."

Deathstroke quickly turned his head over towards the east and saw a mass of headlights coming down the street. He activated the zoom feature to check out the trucks as they came down the street.

"Now I don't know about you Slade, but don't those trucks look like something that you would see in a military?"

"Yeah they do. I guess that Batwench wasn't lying after all."

The convoy below came to a screeching halt as it approached the front gate of the warehouse complex below.

Red Saber left his post across the way and leaped on the roof of the warehouse where Deathstroke could see.

"Nows our chance, we use the trucks to get in."

On the rooftop across the way Deathstroke finished attaching a suppressor to his last weapon.

"All right lets go."

* * *

(**Below the warehouse**)

Underneath the streets of Hong Kong, Dr. Markov was checking on a vat of serum that he had been working on for the last month and a half. The group that got him out of prison, the light, compensated the Russian justice system enough to let him go, so he had a reason to serve them. He didn't want to spend the rest of his life behind bars while his daughter grew up without him.

He looked up at the two containment tubes that the vat was connected to and sighed, "If only I had Marcas here...it would complete the formula and finish my work. All that I have to work with is you two." He said as he pointed to the tubes in frustration.

The doctor pulled a chair under his tired bum and took a seat. He looked at the two subjects in the tubes and buried his face in his palms. "Why did I have to do it? Why did I have to make that stupid super serum in the first place?"

"Well doctor if you didn't you wouldn't be worth our time, now would you."

Markov spun around to see the screens behind him and hanged his head.

"Mister Savage I understand that, what I was saying was..."

"That you would rather be rotting in that gulag in Siberia, rather than being able to see your daughter grow up." said the brain.

"No, no, no, I do wish to see my sweet Viktoriya. What I mean is, why me? Aren't there other mad scientists out there in the world?"

Ra's Al Ghul shook his head, "No, you are the only one that has developed a universal type serum that can give it's target any power that wish. You are the only one that exists."

"What about Warney Tech?" asked Markov

Luthor scoffed, "Warney Tech developing a super serum? Please, that waste of a corporation couldn't make the adhesive for sticky notes!"

Vandal saw the direction that Markov was making this argument decided to take control, "ENOUGH! Doctor you have had plenty of time to develop a more potent formula than the original that you had conceived. How close are you to getting this done?"

The doctor looked down at his clipboard and flipped through some of the pages. "I would say about one more month."

On the other side of the line Markov could hear Savage's fist when it his whatever surface he was leaning on. "Another month! We have given you enough time Markov, and now I think that you are wasting our time and our money here!"

"Please mister Savage, i'm not wasting your time! This formula will work!"

"Silence! With your research in our hands we can work off of what we have and move forward without you. Doctor, you're services are no longer required, have a good night."

The screens went blank and so did Markov's mind. He was expendable now, which meant that they would kill him soon.

He looked around the lab to see if there was something that he could defend himself with. His eyes fell upon a wrench in the far corner. He looked at the main entrance to see if the door was locked, and it was. He would be good for now but he needed something to defend himself with so he grabbed the wrench on the far table and hid under a desk.

He couldn't hear anything going on other than the machinery connecting the vat with the test tubes. Silence, it was something that scared Markov to death and he couldn't stand it.

"I know that they had to have planned this, especially when I haven't really done anything to the formula at all. All that i've done is flush the nanites from Tasha and Andrei's systems, and repair the damage done by my previous formula to their bodies. But how could they have known? Nobody comes in this room, and i've removed all of the bugs from nook and cranny. How..."

**_BLAM!_**

An explosion came from outside the thick steel doors that guarded Markov's lab. The doctor was thankful that he was under a table as soon as the explosion hit. Some of the huge lights above him fell down and shattered plexiglass everywhere.

Markov shielded his face, as some of the shards flew into his arms.

"BAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Blood slowly poured out of the wounds, and Markov did nothing to remove them.

Calming down he could hear gunfire outside the door mixed screaming people.

'_Maybe i'm not the only one being wiped out tonight_.' he thought to himself.

A few seconds more and the gunfire became louder and louder. Whoever it was, was gunning down the guards as if they were nothing. He watched the door intently as the gunfire died down, and it was silent again.

He heard two indistinct voices on the other side of the door and with some beeping noises. Without warning a tower of fire shot through the door and made a gaping hole. The doctor looked on in fear as a familiar figure stepped through the hole, with some high tech assassin right behind him.

"We've searched everywhere Saber and he isn't here, this room is empty."

The man that the doctor identified as Saber sniffed the air and grinned, "I think you're wrong, because I smell fresh blood in here."

Deathstroke looked around the room and saw nothing at first, then he looked over to the desk. He saw a small blood spot on the ground and aimed his pistol at the desk.

He motioned saber to go over and check it out and didn't expect for him to flip the desk over.

"Well, if it isn't the man that we're looking for."

Deathstroke ran over to the dumbfounded doctor and picked him up by his collar."Doctor Markov, it's been a while."

"Monster."

Deathstroke dropped the man and aimed his pistol, "What did you say?"

"Deathstroke."

The man turned around, "What?"

Saber took his hand off of his ear, "The boss wants him alive, or don't you remember?"

Deathstroke turned to face the doctor who was now in the fetal position. "Doctor Markov, we're here to pick you up."

The doctor uncurled and sat up to look at the two in front of him. "I guess that you could say that this is perfect timing in a way. I was declared expedable just a few minutes ago because they have people that can use my research."

He paused for a moment as he stood up and walked over to the two test tubes that were still connected to the vat.

"If I am going to leave this place, then you will need to take these tubes with us, otherwise you can just take my research notes and go."

Deathstroke and Saber looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders.

"All right, if thats how it's going to be. Saber you take the two test tubes, i'll grab the good doctor."

The doctor watched as the agile ninja hopped on top of the two tubes and ripped of the pipes on the top so that he could remove the safety locks below.

Deathstroke threw the doctor over his shoulder and began walking out the door that they came in. Before he stepped out he looked back at his partner, "Saber, can you carry both of those things?"

"Sure I can, I just need to stretch a little bit...You know what, i'll see you outside."

Deathstroke nodded and ran on through the hall that they blasted through just a few minutes earlier.

"May I ask who requests my services mister Wilson?" asked Markov

The merc focused on the way ahead, "To tell you the truth, I think that the man is Marcas's father."

* * *

(**In Marcas's bedroom...**)

Marcas had been thinking about what the hologram had said to him, and why it said that. Was it telling him to distrust the Justice league, and if so why? He wasn't much of a man to delve too deep into things so he would have to consult somone that likes to find the truth in things, and hopefully he could help.

He was going to have a talk with the question tomorrow, and hopefully get some questions answered. For right now though, he wanted to get some shut eye.

...

...

...

**_To be contined in the Part 2..._**


	15. The End of the Two-Faced Tale Part 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything DC Comics, just my characters.**

(**The Next Morning...**)

The question had just gotten back to his apartment, halfway across the capital from the Hall of Justice. In his left hand he had a handmade mug filled to the brim with his favorite kind of coffee, black.

He was in his usual position at his usual place which was sitting in front of the computer looking into the latest and greatest conspiracy yet.

"It all makes sense..."he said as he took a sip of coffee, "Justin Beiber is a member of the illuminati."

He looked over at his wall, which was covered in pictures, pins, and string that stretched from one side of the room to the other.

'_I guess that i'm going to have to put another link on the wall_.' he thought to himself as he took another sip.

"Looking up another conspiracy babe?"

Question recognized the voice from behind, "It's not a conspiracy if it's true."

Two arms wrapped around him and a pair of lips touched the edge of his ear. "Come on Q, drop the conspiracies for a while and relax."

The Question knew that he couldn't do that for too long, but for Helena he would make an exception.

"You know, I think that I have this investigation under wraps here." He turned off the computer and turned to face her.

"I think that I could use something to help me relax."

Huntress smiled, as she knew what he meant, "So do you want to play pogo stick on this chair like we did last week, or maybe something a little more simple like the bed?"

Question didn't even have to think about, "Why don't we try the kitchen?"

Without a seconds delay she pulled him into the kitchen and started pulling off the t-shirt that he was wearing.

Question had a look of surprise on his face,"You seem very eager to get to the point today, what's the occasion?"

She didn't answer him as she pulled off the skinny jeans that she was wearing and tossed them across the room. He threw his tank top that he had on behind him and let her explore his defined abs.

"I haven't seen you in a month, I think that grants me permission to show how much I missed you." Huntress said as she reached the zipper on his pants.

"Being separated for a month can do something like thAAAAT!."

He leaned back as he gripped the counter, just from the sensation that went through his spine. When he looked down at Helena, she was smiling.

* * *

(**Down the hall**)

(**Ten minutes later...)**

The Green Lantern and the Flash had just arrived from Metropolis to get help. They were investigating a recent murder and both knew that their detective skills were terrible. They had contacted Batman earlier and he said that he was busy with an investigation of his own, so there was one other option...

"Do you really think that question could help us? I mean he specializes in crackpot theories, we could be there for days."

The Lantern looked at his partner and face palmed, "Look, these kinds of investigations take time, you can't just..."

"YES! YES! FASTER, FASTER!"

The two in the hall, stood there dumbfounded by what they just heard through the nearby wall.

Lantern spoke first, "Uuuuh, did that just come from Q's room?"

The flash nodded.

Lantern looked at the door and waved for the flash to follow him, "I think that we need to wait a few minutes before we go knocking on the door."

* * *

(**Back in the room)**

Question had the biggest grin on his face that he had had in a while. He was glad to see Helena, and could tell that the feeling was mutual by what just happened in the past fifteen or so minutes.

He reached over to his nightstand and pulled out a small flip book with a few things scribbled into it. '_Let's see, the kitchen, the bed, the balcony, my desk_.' he thought to himself as he checked off each one

When he looked at the last one on the list he was grinning from ear to ear. "We haven't tried the shower yet."

He looked over at the bathroom door across from his bed and heard the water from the shower come on. He threw the sheets off and walked over to the door. He was about to enact the last part of his list when his communicator went off. He walked over to the table in the kitchen and put the device in his ear.

"Hello?"

"Uh, Question this is Lantern. We need your help with something in Metropolis."

The question reached behind him and grabbed a chair so he could listen to what his fellow leaguer would have to say.

"Sure, what do you need me to do?"

There was a pause on the other side of the line, "We need your help solving a murder."

Question scratched his head, "Can't Batman help you with that, or is he busy."

"Batman is doing an investigation of his own right now, and we need someone with investigative skills to help us."

He thought over it for a moment, but the question knew that they needed the help.

"All right, i'll go."

Just then the door opened and both Green Lantern and the Flash came in.

"Good, because we could use the help."

* * *

(**A few floors down**)

Marcas spent most of his time after breakfast trying to find the questions apartment, and it wasn't an easy task either. Nobody really knew where he was except for the original members for the most part, and for those that knew where he was knew that he would change locations in about a month.

Everybody thought that the Question was crazy, but Marcas just thought that he was a cautious man looking out for himself. He could respect a man like that, especially somebody that investigates into things that nobody else would.

It took a few minutes for him to climb the stairs of the thirty floor building, because of the rigorous training that he had to do back when he was in Russia and China. As he had reached the top floor the elevator doors closed, only giving Marcas a glimpse of a green lantern.

He turned to the door right across from him and recognized the numbers from memory.

'_This is it, room 3012..._'

Slowly reaching in front of him and turning the handle, he found that the door to the room was unlocked.

'_This doesn't sit well with me_.' he thought as he pulled out one of his desert eagles.

He looked at the room and saw that it was a mess. There were clothes everywhere, and furniture was turned over from the kitchen to the hallway that led to the next few rooms.

Marcas paused for a moment...

'_Somebody is running water somewhere down the hall_.'

Following his ears, he went down the hallway and prepared for anything. As he moved down the hall the sound became louder and louder, soon he recognized the sound of a shower running and turned to the master bedroom where it was coming from.

Before he entered he took his combat boots off so that he wouldn't make a sound, and laid them out in the hall. He took slow, careful steps to make sure that he wouldn't make any noise, lest he alert whoever was in the bathroom. Making his way around the dresser near the bathroom door, he accidentally got his foot caught on something and didn't realize it.

A few steps later he felt something pulling his right leg back, and it was too late. First he fell forward on his face and dropped his gun. Then the gun hit the nearby wall and fired off a shot by itself. The bullet ricocheted off of a few pieces of furniture then went through the flatscreen above him. Marcas looked up and saw that the huge television had shattered, and so had the stand holding it up.

He just held his hands up, knowing that the thing would impact him soon...and it didn't. He looked up to see why the tv stopped in midair and saw a pair of hands around each end of the flatscreen.

"Thanks for catching that. if it had fallen any furth..."

Marcas stopped and looked closer at the hands above him, they didn't belong to a man. With a split second decision he rolled towards the bed and dodged the falling flatscreen as it came crashing to the ground.

He stood up as fast as he could to try and get a look at his attacker, but was thrown into the hallway by a strong punch.

Just then a feminine voice spoke up, "I don't know who you are and I don't give a damn, but if you don't get out of here in the next five seconds, i'm going to kick your ass out!"

Marcas pulled himself together from his last attack and pulled out his sickle. "Lady, I just came here to look for somebody, not deal with an assassin!"

Huntress reached on the bed next to her and pulled out her Bo staff while marcas watched, "I am not an assassin first of all, second, if you came here for Question, he's long gone."

"Yeah, because you killed him!"

Huntress looked confused, "Killed him? I didn't kill him, I had sex with him."

Now it was marcas's turn to be confused, for the moment. He looked back at the living room then back her and nodded. "I get it, you are a prostitute!"

This didn't bode well, "What did you just say?" Huntress asked while she readied her staff.

"I said that you were a prostitute."

"Thank you." she said as she smiled then threw her Bo staff at his face.

Marcas dodged it, of course, but he didn't see her coming in for the knock out.

and then everything went black...

* * *

(**The Batcave**)

Batman had been looking for hours at the components of the burnt USB drive, and nothing showed up. There was nothing but the usual integrated circuits and chips, and that was it.

This whole time he had been looking for something that could indicate origin like a serial number, and of course there was nothing. Then he tried scanning for fingerprints, and of course there was nothing there either. The last measure would be a maker's mark, or some kind of company logo that could be there, but didn't see it and of course anything that could hold a logo was burnt.

So the best way to describe the situation was SOL.

The dark knight scratched his chin as he put the device through the scanner one more time, this time splitting the small device in half.

"Master bruce?" said voice from across the cave.

Batman turned to look at his faithful servant, and friend, "Yes?"

"I've brought you ham and eggs sir, the sun has risen."

Knowing that he had just spent all night looking into this device Batman happily accepted the gifts in front of him.

Alfred looked up at the screen and saw the destroyed USB drive and thought for a moment. "Was this the device that was used to torture the young man from Russia?"

Batman took a sip of coffee, "It wasn't used to torture him. It was made to make him doubt his acceptance into the league."

"I assume that someone wishes for him to leave the Justice League?"

Batman nodded as he finished up what was left on his plate, "That's true, but the question is who?"

"Do you mind if I answer that."

Batman shook his head while he turned back to the computer screen, "No, go ahead."

"How about Deathstroke? After all he tried to force the boy into becoming his apprentice."

Batman pressed a button, and brought up a few photos on the computer, "No, Deathstroke gave up on that months ago, and he killed Marcas in the process."

"Or so he thought."

"That's right. I think that Deathstroke has finally decided to give up on finding that heir to take up his job when he dies."

Alfred pointed to the screen to a man that was in a lab coat. "What about him?"

Batman looked at the photo that he was pointing to and shook his head, "That's Dr. Markov. He doesn't specialize in technology like this, that and he's currently in Hong Kong."

"I would beg to differ."

Batman turned to face alfred, "How come?"

Alfred sighed, "I recieved a call from misses Kane, and she delivered the most gruesome information that I have heard in a while."

"What happened?"

"It seems that while you and the others were observing master Valitov during his exam, she was kidnapped and brutally tortured by Deathstroke."

Batman's heart skipped a beat, "How was she?"

Alfred held his hand to his mouth to hold back the sick feeling that he flet in his stomach. "She has second degree burns all the way up her inner thighs, and some singeing in more sensitve areas."

Batman couldn't believe what he was hearing, "Does she know if Dr. Markov is still in Hong Kong?"

Alfred shook his head, "No sir, it seems that Deathstroke kidnapped the doctor from the facility that she was monitoring, and he had some help doing so."

"Who was it?"

Alfred shrugged his shoulders, "I do not know, all the she said was that she would send you an image of something that she caught when she escaped their custody. It should be in your email"

The dark knight quickly turned to the computer and shrunk the image of the USB drive to the other side of the screen. He pulled up the message that she had sent and opened the attachment, revealing a high tech looking sword with an emblem on it.

Both of them were looking at the image to see what the emblem meant, but Batman got the image first.

"Alfred, take a look at the inside of the USB drive when both sides are put together and that emblem on the sword."

Alfred did as he was told and looked at both of the images. To his surprise, "They match."

"They match, but where is the emblem from? I've never seen anything like it."

Just then something rang in Alfred's head. He turned to the tray that he used to bring breakfast down and handed Batman the newspaper.

"Look on page a2."

He quickly flipped to the page and saw news of two companies joining together then found a picture. On the picture it showed a Japanese man shaking hands with a very charismatic looking, young entrpeneur. He did't see what Alfred was talking about at first then realized that it must be something that you see with a magnifying glass.

He reached over to the other side of the computer and pulled down the magnifying glass that was attached to a stand and looked closely at the picture. What he was looking for was on a button on both of the people in the picture, it was an old company logo.

* * *

(**Tokyo, Japan**)

"I am sorry that I failed you master, it won't happen again."

The Shadow Man face palmed, "Let me say this again phase, YOU DIDN'T FAIL ME!"

The cowering figure in front of him shook in shock from the sound of his voice.

"My son will leave the Justice League in due time my dear. It won't be long before doubt swallows him whole, and the truth will be revealed. That and his lust for revenge of course."

Phase bowed to her leader like a god.

"So, since I did well on my part of the mission, when do I get my reward?" she asked in a seductive tone.

"You'll get it."

Like a flash, he teleported right in front of her and pulled her into his embrace.

"Just not right now."

He smiled as he saw the look of despair on her face.

"Don't worry, once this is all said and done, the time for teasing will be over. We will live a happy retirement together on some far off island filled to the brim with people."

She looked up at her master and smiled, "And then we kill them all so that we have it all to ourselves?"

He grinned as wide as he could and lowered his face closer to hers, "You read my mind you evil, little minx."

Across the room the doors opened and in came Deathstroke and Red Saber.

"So I see that you both completed the mission?" asked The Shadow Man with a hint of seriousness.

Red Saber bowed while Deathstroke remained standing.

"The doctor came quietly with us. He said that he was about to be killed off by some group on the way here called the light."

Deathstroke saw the look on his client's face from across the room. He had a feeling that he had a knowledge of this group.

The shadow man reached behind him and grabbed a small glass filled with an amber colored liquid.

"I know what the light is Saber. They are nothing but a group of equally minded pests led by Vandal Savage, a man full of ideals that just won't die. The rest are all idiots and fools with unreachable goals in mind as well. They are nothing but a bunch of washed up criminals."

"So they're a social club for super-villains?" asked Deathstroke with a hint of humor.

The Shadow Man took a sip of his drink and nodded in agreement, "I guess that You could put it like that."

Just then a beep sounded off in his pocket. The Shadow Man reached down into his pocket and pulled out an expensive looking cell phone. He took one glance at the screen and frowned.

"Phase?"

The woman standing behind him walked to his side, "Yes master?"

"It seems that Batman has arrived at an old facility of mine in Shizuoka. I want you and Shang to go and make him leave the compund, but without using force."

Phase hung her head, while Saber shook his. They both bowed to their master, then ran out the front door.

Deathstroke turned back to his client and took of his mask, "I guess that you didn't want me to go because I would be recognized."

The shadow man took another sip and set the drink down, "That's correct. I don't want the Dark Knight to recognize you and immediately relate you to the kidnapping of Dr. Markov."

"How do you know that he is looking for Dr. Markov?"

The Shadow Man looked at the man a few steps down from him and shined two glowing red eyes behind his shades. "Because you didn't kill Batwoman you oaf!"

His words resonated throughout the room and forced the guards on each wall to turn their heads. The Shadow Man looked at all of them and realized that he needed to calm down. He looked behind and backed up until he was touching his throne and took a seat.

He rubbed his temple to try and relieve some of the stress and spoke again, "The next phase of my plan is to draw Marcas away from the league. We've panted the seed of doubt, now it's time to lure him away, and Deathstroke you're the bait."

Dethstroke looked at him with a confused look on his face, "Deathstroke, my son is following the trail of the Question which should lead him to where you killed his former caretaker. Did you leave the note that I told you to leave?"

Deathstroke nodded, "Good, that will propel my boy into hunting you down like the dog you are and lead him to someone that I have been watching for a long time."

"And who would that be?"

The Shadow Man looked Slade in the eye and grinned, "Jayden Warney, A.K.A. Shadow."

Slade looked puzzled at this one, "Why would you want him to go to sparrow?"

The Shadow Man leaned forward and pounded his fists on the arms of the chair."IT"S SHADOW! Secondly i've been monitoring him through the bugs that I put in his corporate office, and it seems that he wishes to form a league of his own."

Slade crossed his arms and rubbed his temple, "So you want him to join another team?"

The Shadow Man smiled again and leaned back in his seat, "Yes, you see, the league is full of a bunch of liars that are way over Macras's age, but if you have a team that can relate to him, then it makes their destruction the sweeter. I plan on making my son suffer, and if he joins this proposed team, and we kill them off, then he will have nothing to live for."

"And he will fall right into your hands?"

The Shadow Man nodded, "Yes, my boy will be coming home where he belongs."

* * *

(**Back at the Question's apartment...**)

Helena didn't want any more of a fuss form the man in font of her, so she tied him up with the ethernet cord from Question's computer and tied as tight as she could without giving him the ability to break it.

The first thing that she was wondering was, who is his guy and why is he looking for Q? She wasn't exactly the type to sit and wait, so she slapped him across the face to wake him up.

He didn't even move...

So she slapped him again, this time adding more power to it, and he still didn't budge.

_'He has to be feeling that'_ she thought to herself as she stared at him.

"You know if you wanted me to wake up you could've asked." Marcas said with a grin on his face as ripped the ethernet cord off.

Huntress watched as he stood up, revealing a little more of his figure. _'Whoa, look at that chest'_ she thought to herself.

Marcas looked down at her and shook his head, "Look lady, I need to know where The Question is so that he can help me out."

Quickly Huntress snapped out of her trance and stood up, hoping that she would be a little intimidating. Come to find out, she was half a head length shorter, even in her heels.

"Before I answer that, I need to know who are you?" she asked while poking him in the chest.

He stood back and crossed his arms as he announced his name, "I am Marcas Valitov, I am the Red Crosshairs."

Before she knew it, the name connected with a message that the Question had sent a while back.

"So you're the kid that Q pulled out of the bamboo in China."

Marcas nodded in response, "Da, he saved my life and brought here. A place where I promised I would take Tasha one day."

Huntress watched as he bowed his head, and tears came streaming down his eyes. At first she didn't know the reason why the man in front of her broke down, then she remembered the body of what the Question had sent her.

"I promised her children, children that she might not have been able to have because of her powers."

Huntress wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into a hug, "Why would her powers prevent her from having kids?"

Marcas wiped the water from his eyes and looked down at her, "It was a failsafe, given to the women that participated. You could call it permanent birth control, so that there wouldn't be super children overpopulating the planet."

"I'm sorry to hear that big guy, but let me ask you one more thing, why do you need Q?"

After this question, Marcas had a serious look on his face that described what he was about to say. "I want to know what I heard from a hologram during my final examination."

"What did it say?"

He looked down at the ground to recollect what it had told him yesturday, "...believe nothing...question everything. I want to know what it means."

Huntress let go of the man in front of her and scratched her chin. Right at that moment she had a flashback of when she first met the Question and remembered something. "It's an old Buddhist saying that means that you should investigate all that hear and see."

"So I have to investigate why the hologram told me to not trust the league as well?"

Huntress nodded her head and pulled out her cellphone,"Yep, and I think that I know the man that can answer that question."

* * *

(**Metropolis, hours later**)

Question just shook his head at the sight in front of him. Before him lay a former member of the teen titans, as cold as the heart of Victor Fries. He had just come by here almost a month before with Marcas in his arms, fully knowing that this man could take good care of him and nurse him back to full health. The man had done his job, and was now paying the ultimate price.

"Do you have all of the evidence that you need question?"

Question turned to look at the lantern and hung his head, "Yes, i've been over to the daily planet as well and talked to one of the guards that was on duty that night."

"And what did he have to say about it?"

The Question stood up for this next part and flipped open his notebook, "Judging by what the man said, it had to have been Deathstroke."

The lantern's face went from calm to ghostly pale in a few seconds, "Did he have a beef with Leonid before this? Did he come here to settle a score?"

The Question flipped to the next of page of his book and continued, "No, by the looks of the footage, this was a hit, not a revenge kill."

Just then, the flash had walked into the group, "I'm not a detective and I already knew that just by looking at the way that the poor guy was stabbed, that and the footage from the video camera that this was a job."

"Well, it looks like I have everything rapped up here with this investigation. I guess that I will have to report this in front of the league."

The lantern shook his head, "No, just to the original members, nobody else needs to know about this."

This struck a nerve, "Are you saying that you want me to keep this deep dark secret just between the original members? Just so you can keep Marcas caged?!"

"Yeah, thats how it's always been, and will be" said the Flash in a nonchalant manner.

"To tell you two the truth, somebody will eventually find out and when they do...!"

Just then the door opened. Everybody in the room turned to see who was at the door and were shocked to see who it was.

The question looked directly into the young man's eyes and said his name, "Marcas..."

**Well, let me put it this way, things will start heating up soon between Marcas and the league. Also there are about to be plenty of questions in the next chapter, and who better to answer them than the man himself, The Question. Stay tuned, review for criticism, or just reviewing, message me for any questions, and as always UNTIL NEXT TIME!**

**A/N: Here are the profiles on Red Saber and Phase**

**Red Saber:**

**Name: Liu Kai-Shang**

**Eye Color: Red all the time(though you can't see them under his cyber goggles)**

**Hair color: Black**

**Height: 5'10**

**Weight: 220 ibs**

**Powers/Abilities: Super strength, Agility, Super Jumping, keen sense of smell and hearing, master of mixed martial arts, master of swords, Bloodlust(Heightens all of his super powers, but causes him to get extremely hungry)**

**Psyche Profile: Calm and collected, but most of the time lecherous**

**Past: Born in a Buddhist Monastery in the mountains of Nepal, Shang was taught the ways of the monk. He was trained to defend himself and his temple through martial arts training exercises and time consuming meditation. One night, while he was walking through the temple, he noticed that there was somebody by the front gate. He went to check and come to find out it was a woman with bright red hair. Shang's father, the head monk at the temple made it clear that no women were to enter the temple grounds, unless they had permission from the oldest to do so. Shang, being the teen that he was, brought her in to his room for the night. As he examined her he found the reason why she was unconscious, she had been stabbed. While dressing her wound she sprang to life all of a sudden and planted her teeth into his neck. Shang fell to the ground unconscious, and didn't wake up until his father woke him, and by the look on his face, he wasn't pleased. Simply finding out that his son disobeyed him, he banished his son from the temple, never to enter again. **

**Shang, not knowing what to do with his life, ran and ran, until his feet could carry him no more. Eventually he found out what the woman's bite gave him, and in his mind he decided what he was going to do with his powers, make money. **

**He joined a mercenary group, and eventually became a well known name in the kill for cash world that has become so popular. Which of course garnered the attention of the Shadow Man, who at the time had disguised himself as a contractor.**

**Phase:**

**Name: Rachael Strong**

**Eye Color: Green**

**Hair Color: Auburn**

**Height: 5'8**

**Weight: 193**

**Powers/Abilities: Shape shifting, Master of firearms, blades, and most military and civilian vehicles, Pheromone manipulation, Master of Krav Maga.**

**Psyche Profile: Show off, kinky, and most of the time dangerous**

**Past: Right out of high school, Rachael had an idea of what she was going to do in the future. Her sights were set on MIT where she was going to introduce her new ideas to the student body and the staff, and hope that she gets somewhere in the college. She had created a suit that can turn any object into another object, without destroying the original, and she deveolped a special perfume that could woo any man, no matter how much of a will to resist that he had. When she got there her inventions were a hit, and with help got patents for both. **

**While attending the school, she fell in love with one of her professors, eventually she found out the he felt the same way about her. One night while she was preparing for her next date with him, she applied some of her pheromone solution and waited a while for him to arrive. Then an idea popped into her head, why not use the her shape shifting suit to really have a night of pure entertainment.**

**She put on the suit and waited for him to arrive, and when he did he looked angry. He made a claim that his wife had found out about their relationship, and that his life was over. He had lost his wife and his job because of her, and now she was going to pay. That whole night, while nobody was around he beat her almost to death then tossed her out the window, which was fives stories from the ground.**

**Battered, Broken, and used Rachel Fled to the one place that gave her solace, Gotham. There she stayed until a decision came into her mind, she would never let a man use her again like that professor did. So she still went to that college, even though it was the place that paralyzed her from the waist down. She was looked down upon, and eventually contemplated suicide.**

**One day she made her way to the top of her aparment complex and was about to wheel off when somebody grabbed her hand. She looked up to this person that had stopped her and saw a man with white hair, but had the face of a thirty year old. The man whispered promises of greatness and revenge, and eventually the ability to walk again, so she joined him, she joined the Shadow man.**


	16. Skyfall

**I know that this may seem awkward, buuuuuuut...this is the last chapter of this story. It's an abrupt ending, but I even told myself that I wasn't going to go up to eighteen chapters. So I hope that it is enjoyable, and if not please tell me via message, review, or just vote on the poll that I have on my profile page.**

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything DC Comics, just my ocs.**

* * *

At that that time it was one of those awkward moments that went above the mere word awkward.

When Marcas had entered the room everything fell silent. The conversation between the three heroes in the room had stopped because the man of the hour was here, and soon the walls would be crashing down.

Marcas bolted into the room to see the man that had taken care of him and treated him like a son, now pale as snow on the floor. He looked up and down to see how this could have happened and held Leonid's hand.

From his training back in Russia, he was taught the basics of forensics and how to tell when someone, a comrade for sure had died and how it happened. Just from feeling the stiffness of the muscles and the temperature from the hand, he had been dead for a couple of days.

He looked up at the question with tear filled eyes and asked, "How..."

Q kneeled down to his level and put a hand on his shoulder, "He's been dead for a few days now, he..."

"NYET! I don't want to know when he died, I know that! I want to know HOW he died."

The question reached down to the deceased hero and lifted his shirt. Underneath there was a Large cut right in the middle of Leonid's chest, which Marcas cringed at.

Marcas just shook his head as he tried to figure out what happened. The question handed Marcas his note pad and said, "Here, the truth is in here."

Just before Marcas could grab it the Green Lantern fired a ball of energy at the pad and burned it to ashes.

Everyone in the room looked at him with a questioning look, for the most part Marcas. The Flash was giving more of an, 'uh oh' expression that sent obvious messages to the young Russian.

"The question's evidence was inconclusive, there was no reason to even read the thing. Now let's get this poor guy on the ground right here some help."

As the Lantern was about to pick up the body with his ring Marcas stood right in front of him.

"Marcas get out of my way."

The man known as the Red Crosshairs knew that something was up, so he got right in the lantern's face and pointed a finger.

"No, I will die before I let you lay a hand on my otchim!"

The lantern looked at him with anger and impatience, "I don't know what an otchim is, but this man is going to get a proper burial."

As the lantern charged his ring, Marcas grabbed the man's hand and squeezed it as hard as he could. Both the Question and the Flash watched as the mighty Green Lantern was brought to his knees by Marcas with just one hand, no punches, no kicks, just a grip of iron.

"Now you listen to me! The evidence that the Question compiled will be presented to the league!"

The lantern shook his head, "No it won't, I just burnt his note book."

"Actually..." the Question said to gain everyone's attention, "I do carry a notebook, but the pen that I use is electronic, and it communicates what I write to my hard drive at home. Basically, all that I wrote down is saved on my computer"

Marcas smiled while the Green Lantern shook his head, "Question, you don't know what you are doing."

The Question walked up to the lantern and smiled under his mask, "I know what i'm doing. I am telling him the truth."

The lantern, looking for help some kind looked over at the flash who had his arms crossed and was leaning against the wall.

Marcas pulled the lantern close to face and stared at him with his crosshairs active, "What does the Question mean about the truth? Have you been lying to me?"

The Lantern hung his head in shame and nodded, "Yes, it was supposed to be a well kept secret."

Marcas looked at him right in the eyes and said, "Tell...me...everything."

* * *

(**En route to Washington D.C.****)**

The Green Lantern had flown everyone from the scene of the crime with a projected airliner.

Marcas sat in the back of the plane, just so he wouldn't be anywhere near the Flash or anybody else from the league. He got the whole story on how he was 'destined' to become the next Deathstroke if he wasn't caged and trained like some pet. He had learned that the league lied to him, and in a way it reminded him of the torture that he had gone through for most of his life in Russia and China.

As he looked out the window, the Flash took the opportunity to take a seat right next to Marcas.

"Hey uh, look, i'm sorry that things have turned out the way that they have. I mean, by the way that Superman put it, it was all for your benefit."

Within a split second Marcas turned to face him, still with the crosshairs in his eyes.

"You thought that caging me, someone with mental issues was for my benefit?! Chertov idiot."

The Flash looked forward towards the cockpit where where the Lantern was sitting and let out a sigh, "What was that that you said back there? What was it...otchim?"

He watched as Marcas turned back to the window, "It means step father...Oleg...I mean Leonid was like a father to me, but I knew that he wasn't my father."

The Flash reached out and put a hand on his shoulder, "I really mean it when I say i'm sorry. I may joke around a lot, but that's just because things are always so serious in the league. I mean, if you knew what we talked about behind those doors..."

Those were the wrong words, Marcas reached up to shoulder and brushed the Flash's hand to the side.

"I'm going to deal with all of the liars when we get back. Nobody lies to me and gets away with it."

* * *

(**At the Hall of Justice an hour later...**)

Once they had landed, Marcas took off into the closest door to find who he was looking for. The Question and everyone else that was with him lost track and went on a frantic hunt to find him. They split up into two groups. One group being made up of the Flash and the Green Lantern, and the other being the Question.

The Question went to the first place that Marcas could be, his room. He opened the door to go inside and ran into something tall and metal. He looked up to see a man standing there.

"Sorry didn't see you there."

Cyborg lent a hand as he picked the Question up off the floor.

"It's fine, by the way, are you Marcas' roommate?"

Cyborg nodded,"Yeah, why do you ask?

"Has he been by here?"

He glanced back at the room and saw that Marcas' regular ammunition clips were missing.

"I think he probably was, I mean I just got here."

Question grabbed both of Cyborg's arms grab his attention for the moment.

"Look, I think that he's about to get himself into a lot of trouble, where is he?"

Cyborg looked down at the console on his arm and typed in a few commands, "If Marcas has his guns on him right now, then we can track him."

The question looked at the screen and saw his current location. He added something onto the console and a few extra blips popped up on the radar.

Cyborg asked, "What are those?"

"Those are the original members that agreed to bring Marcas into the League, and looking at his current location...my God, he's going after Superman."

"Then we have to act fast!"

...

While flying through the hall the Green Lantern pressed a finger to his comm link, "Hello?"

"lantern this the Question, do you copy?"

"Q I read you loud and clear, what did you find?"

There was a pause, "I found his roommate, Marcas went by here to pick up some ammunition for his handguns. We were able to track him somewhere in the building."

"Where is he?"

"He just went by the science wing! He might have gone by there to get some kryptonite!"

The lantern looked down at the Flash then back at the hall in front of him, "Why would he need...oh shit."

The Flash turned around to see what was going on, "So where is he?"

"Wally, you need to get to Superman as fast as possible, do you hear me!"

The Flash nodded and zipped off as fast as he could, hopefully Marcas wouldn't do what they thought he was about to do.

...

In the Hall Superman was walking hand in hand with the future miss kent walking beside him.

"Clark, I seriously don't know about this, I mean what if somebody like Luthor finds out? The could use me against you."

Superman looked down at the woman in his arm and smiled, "I know what you're saying, and I think that you're right, but I really want us to be together. We've been dating all these years, but we haven't gone past meeting each other."

"Well thats because every time you propose to me either something blows up or you have to save the world from some nutcase."

Superman smiled, "I can't help it if it's my job."

Lois' demeanor changed, "That's the problem..."

"What?"

She down at the ground as she let out a sigh, "Why can't you let someone else take charge? I'm sure that Bruce could take over for a bit."

"Lois, he's not even a member of the league."

"Clark I didn't mean take over the league..."

It took Superman a moment to think of what she meant and when it came to him he just shook his head.

"Clark, you've saved the world so many times, and haven't even thought of what you're going to do after you get to a certain age, after you put away those tights and that cape."

"Lois you know that it's going to be impossible for me to do that."

Superman didn't hear it at first, but Lois was crying. He didn't realize it until he saw tears streaming down her face.

"Wh-wh-when are you going to stop? Can't you find anyone that can do what you do?"

Superman pulled Lois closer to him and held her head in his hands.

"I'll find someone soon, and when I do, we can focus on you and me."

From the sadness came a small smile, on Lois' face more so. Superman gave her a hug and a quick peck on the lips then walked her out to her car.

Before she cranked the engine to get the car off and running Superman leaned into the open window and gave her a kiss goodbye.

"Just so you know, i've thought of a few places that we could get married."

Lois grinned, "Oh, really now?"

Superman shrugged his shoulders, "I'm always traveling around the world you know, why not take a few notes on the places that I visit."

"How many places do you have in mind?"

Superman scratched his chin as he tried to remember, "I think about twenty."

"Wow, you have been busy."

"Yeah I know, i'll email them to you when you have the time."

"Or you could just show those places to me when you have the time." said Lois with a wink of her eye."

"We'll talk about that later, right now i've to go find Batman, wherever he's brooding."

"All right, take care." she said as she cranked the car and drove away.

As he was waving goodbye he heard the sound of two guns cocking behind him. When he looked to see who it was he saw Marcas standing there with both of his desert eagles aimed at Superman's face.

"Hello Superman, or should I say super LIAR!"

"Marcas, what are you...you know don't you."

Marcas laughed, "Wow, you really don't regret it do you? Caging me up in the Justice League like an animal, and all because you're too afraid that I will exact my revenge against Deathstroke, thereby becoming the deadliest being on the planet."

"Marcas, we did this for your own protection."

"Really? REEEEEAAALLY! I heard the same damn thing back in Russia and China and you know what happened? PEOPLE DIED! DO YOU HEAR ME YOU CAPE WEARING FAIRY! PEOPLE DIED!...And where were you then? Where was the Justice League to save the children that died and suffered all because of a mad doctor and his mercenary henchman! You...were...NO WHERE! I was young and naive when I learned of the League, and I have to say that I am naive no more. I now realize that all that you do is for your own glory, not to bring justice or freedom anywhere. You may look like heroes, but all that you create are monsters. There will be no peace in a league like this."

"I'm sorry that you feel that way...and I do realize now that you should have gotten treatment before joining the league."

Marcas fired a shot that barely grazed Superman's shoulder and sent him so the ground. "You know, that's very nice of you to JUST NOW REALIZE THAT! I've had nightmares like you couldn't believe. They constantly bring Tasha and Andrei back to me...They constantly remind me of how I couldn't save them, but I know that I can avenge them."

Superman sat up and looked at Marcas with a hint of anger lingering on his face. "Marcas, you don't want revenge..."

"That's where you are wrong Superman, I do, and when I do i'm going to do it on live television where everyone can watch me splatter Deathstroke's insides all over the ground."

Superman tried to shake the image, and stood up to try to talk some sense into Marcas, "Please Marcas, hear me out..."

"NYET! No more! I despise liars, especially those that are supposedly heroes. It's time that you learned your lesson on why you don't lie to those who have been hurt the most."

As Marcas was about to pull the triggers on both of his guns he heard something coming up behind him. Before he could react he was knocked off of his feet by something that appeared to be a blur, but as time slowed down he saw the Flash.

Marcas fell to the ground and the Flash went over to help Superman onto his feet. When Marcas turned to look at the two he activated his crosshairs.

"Marcas this needs to stop, you're going to kill someone!" yelled the Flash.

The Red Crosshairs grinned as he loaded two new mags into his pistols, both were glowing a bright green.

"That was my intention the whole time."

* * *

(**On the other side of the world in Shizouka, Japan**)

Batman had just arrived at the warehouse from the newspaper. The facility that he had arrived at specialized in nano bot technology, advanced robotics, and of course a genuine steel maker.

From what research he could pull up the corporation was bought out six years ago by a wealthy middle eastern businessman who looked like anything but. The corporation lasted for almost a year after the buyout then when the global economic crisis hit all hell broke loose. The company went bottom up, and there was a lawsuit filed against it by many international courts because of the man behind much of the technology, Dr. Caroline Bray.

Just a few hours ago Batman had pulled up an article detailing Bray as the next leading figure in nano technology. But why was there such a maelstrom of lawsuits against her? It was simple, for three years she had been an assistant to none other than the world's leading scientist in nano technology at the time, Joseph Tanner.

There were many tales spun off that she and Tanner had a sexual affair which led to Tanner leaving MIT as well as Bray. Doctor Tanner went to Lexcorp, while Bray went on her own path to research on how to perfect nano technology.

She has been missing for two years, and nobody knows where she could be. This is a reason why Batman decided to do a little investigating inside the facility, other than the relation to the picture that Batwoman sent.

Batman was going by crate after crate, wielding a mini x-ray device, to scan each individual crate for anything useful. The only problem was that most were empty. Nearly every crate that he had scanned had come up with either dust, rats, or nothing at all. This whole investigation seemed pointless until he found the entrance to the steel manufacturing part of the facility.

This part of the building was more worse off than the last. There was machinery all over the floor, along with some broken glass. The there was something in the corner that caught his eye, a computer terminal that looked like it still had power going to it.

He walked over to the terminal and pressed a few keys to find out if it would turn on and it did. A screen popped up showing the company's logo along with a few other files that had logos of their own. Using the built in mouse he skimmed through the many pages of files that were stored on there until he ran across a file with no name. He clicked on it, but it didn't open, instead an alarm went off in the building.

Batman didn't have a clue of what just happened, but for sure he had alerted someone nearby. In the room that he entered in he could see multiple flashlight beams making their way through the crates in the room. He looked around him to see if there was a place that he could grapple onto and found an exhaust vent built into the wall. He fired his grappling hook and ripped the grate off first, then fired another shot to escape whoever was coming his way.

Once he had gotten on the roof he looked over to see where the guards, or whoever they were came from and saw local police cars sitting out front.

'_Someone must have hooked up the terminal to an alarm system to prevent anybody from getting sensitive files_' he thought to himself.

Something beeped on Batman's belt. He recognized the sound from explosives detector, but where could the explosives be...

**BLAM!**

Suddenly the roof behind him blew up in a ball of fire. Batman pulled his cape around him to shield himself from the fire, but soon he realized that that wasn't going to help one bit. The roof below him collapsed, sending him into an inferno of steel and old chemicals.

* * *

The Flash had tried to kick out Marcas' legs out from under him, but the man wouldn't budge. Superman was standing back, for fear of what Marcas had loaded into his weapon before the fight began and Marcas could see it.

He could see the fear in Superman's eyes of dying, and he relished it.

The Flash came around for another go, this time going for Marcas' face. He was about two inches from his face when Marcas side stepped him and tripped him.

"So, is this how you always fight? The man of steel is king so he decides to let his pawns go first..."

Marcas reached down to pick up the Flash, pulled back his arm and punched him as hard as he did with the Deathstroke hologram the day before. The Flash went flying straight through the glass of the front door, into the main lobby where everyone could see.

Just then the Green Lantern had arrived at the lobby and saw the damage that Marcas had already done. The Flash had a huge piece of glass jutting out from his leg, and a nice sized gash in his forehead. He was out of the fight.

Outside, Superman was stunned by the strength that Marcas had. He hadn't seen him do something of that feat of strength from all of the footage that was accessible to the league, plus he wasn't supposed to have super strength. What was going on?

Marcas pulled his pistols out of their holsters again and aimed them at Superman.

"So, we're here again...back where this whole thing started...back to me, shooting you, the king of liars."

Marcas didn't notice it, but there was a large group of footsteps behind him.

"I don't think that you're going to do that."

The Red Crosshairs turned to see who said that and nearly flipped out.

It was the question that made the statement, but who was there to back him up was more shocking. Wonder Woman, the Green Lantern, The Martian Manhunter, Hawkgirl, Cyborg, and at the last minute the Batman had arrived.

"Sorry I'm late. I was about a few seconds from dying before Dr. Fate decided to warp in."

The group turned to look at the man in gold floating behind him. He remained silent.

"Well, it looks like I have more pawns to kill then a man that can outrun me."

The group turned back to Marcas and charged all of their weapons.

Behind Marcas Superman smiled, "Marcas, you have two choices. Either you put down your weapons and calmly surrender, or this is going to get ugly real quick."

In his fractured mind The Red Crosshairs was analyzing each of the people that stood in front him. He calculated the many ways that he could have his ass handed to him, and found now ay out. The probability of him winning was .00000001% to 99.999999%. He was no fool and knew that he couldn't win...so he tossed his desert eagles to the ground.

"Fine, there will be not retribution."

Marcas held his hands above his head, signaling that the fight was over.

"Do what you must, I am a criminal now."

He stood there for a moment waiting for something to happen, anything. Then at that moment he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around to see Superman.

He didn't say anything, he just pulled Marcas into a hug and said, "I'm sorry...i'm sorry that I lied to you and let my fear cloud my judgement..."

Hearing this, tears started coming out of Marcas' eyes, and he returned the embrace back with one of his own.

Then he continued, "...I'm sorry that I broke your trust. I know that you've been through a lot in your lifetime up to and needed the proper treatment to heal those wounds that you've had for most of your life. You will get the treatment that you need and we'll all make sure that it happens, because you've been through a lot. You've survived what most kids wouldn't even make it out of, and you're still in one piece..."

Superman let go and got down on one knee, "Marcas, can you forgive me?"

Marcas stood there, unable to speak for the moment. He walked away a few steps and looked at the damage done to the Hall of Justice, then he looked back.

"Da, I forgive you...what I could ask is, can you all forgive me."

Everybody looked at each other, thinking about whether or not they could, I mean, he was just about to kill Superman.

"It will take some time to do so maybe for the others, but I do." said the Martian

Superman walked over to Marcas and led him towards the Hall, "I think that we should discuss this inside."

The Green Lantern looked at the front entrance to the hall of justice and asked, "Well, what do we tell everybody when they see this?"

Superman looked back and replied, "We tell them the truth."

* * *

**THE EPILOGUE**

**Marcas' POV**

_Journal Entry 1_

The next days were different for me. Nobody else but the Flash had forgiven me for what I had done, and he was the one that I had harmed.

I helped repair the front entrance of the all, which was very hard job, especially when it's just you having to fix it.

Eventually, a week after the event had happened I was called before the original members of the league to decide where we would go forward.

It took them a week to decide, but they had finally come to a conclusion, I would leave the Justice League temporarily to recieve help with my mental problems.

A good friend of theirs and a member of the league, Doctor Fate had offered to help me with the very thing that had been causing this the whole time, my memories. Hopefully he could help.

_Journal Entry 2_

I've said my goodbyes to Cyborg, and some of the other people that I had met at my time in the hall, and of course firmly grabbed Black Canaries buttocks. Which angered some man that reminded me of Robin Hood. I'm guessing that he was her boyfirend or something.

Anyways, I am to take a flight to Doctor Fates home, which is some stone tower out in the middle of nowhere, and begin the healing process there. I cannot wait to be cured of this illness and be free!

I almost forgot to mention, Cyborg gave me his old communicator from his days as a titan as a souvenir.

_Journal Entry 13_

I feel incredible today! I have learned how to meditate like Doctor Fate does, and calm my nerves. Of course they are calm now, now that the healing process has begun.

_Journal Entry 27_

I must say that Fate has a good taste in women. I know that hsi wife is married, but if she wasn't I wonder if she could be my cougar? I would be happy with that.

_Journal Entry 36_

It has been almost ten days since my last entry. Since then my meditation has led me to ask, why stay with the Justice league? Why not go out on my own and make my own living as an anti-hero like Clint Eastwood was in the American movie that I watched last night?

I have thought this over and over again, and with Deathstroke still out there my survival rate would be 37.69% to 62.31%. Damn it! Why can't I do this on my own? Why do I need someone to work with like Clint Eastwood did in that movie? All that happened was the same thing over and over int he end, the sidekick dies.

_Journal Entry 37_

I mustered the strength to talk to Doctor Fate about what I wrote down last night. He told me that he knew that I would ask that and showed me a crystal ball.

For a moment, I thought that he was about to pull some sort of magic trick and bore me to death, but what I saw in the ball didn't bore me.

What I saw was a young man, younger than me with what looked like a black trench coat on and a pair of glasses. He was fighting something from the looks of it and needed help. Then someone else came into the image, it was a girl about the boy's age, she helped him escape the fight. The ball flashed again to show a young boy wielding tonfas surrounded by unknown assailants.

I didn't know who any of these people were, but maybe Doctor Fate could explain more.

_Journal Entry 38_

Before I went to sleep last night, Fate visited my room. He told me that those people were like me; people that believed in taking down the scum of the Earth by any means necessary, no holds barred. I asked him who they were and he just told me that I would find out in a few days.

_Journal Entry 50_

Fate told me about my future, that it was shrouded in mystery. He tole me that I needed to go to Gotham city if I wanted to find this 'Shadow'.

I packed my things to get ready to go, but Fate had a last minute thing to give me. He told me it was a request from the great beyond by my Otchim, Leonid.

I didn't know what I was getting, all that I heard was that I was going to be shocked...and I was.

Leonid had written in his will that I would get his assault rifle and his sniper rifle from his days in the army along with something else that made me drop everything. He gave me his brand new, barely driven, bright red, 450 horse powered Ferrari with leather interior, automatic transmission, and new tires!

I would've fainted if it hadn't been for the fact that fate handed me the keys.

He told me that he would tell the league that i'm not coming back, and that i'm going on a journey to be with the right people, the family that I need.

I got in the humming vehicle, and with a short goodbye he teleported me to someplace unknown. Hopefully it would be somewhere near Gotham.

* * *

(**Tokyo, Japan**)

At the underground base at the docks, every last guard was helping move machinery and crates onto a nearby submarine.

Overseeing that the job would get done was Red Saber, who was checking off things as they went in.

Further back in the base, Deathstroke was packing all of his belongings that he had stored in his quarters.

"After this long staying here..." he said to himself, "I never thought that we would leave this place."

"I did"

Deathstroke pulled out his sword and swung it behind him, almost slicing Phase's head off.

"You need to stop startling me you idiot!"

She giggled, "And you need to find a way to blow off some steam."

Slade scoffed, "Isn't there something that you need to be doing?"

"No," said another voice, "She's actually doing what I asked."

Deathstroke turned to this other voice to see a man in a well decorated Black and red uniform, with a crosshairs emblem on his shoulder.

"Well, well, well, Colonel Westbrook, isn't this a surprise?"

The younger man shoved a finger in his face and scowled, "Can it Wilson, our leader wants you to see him onboard the sub, now."

Slade crammed his combat knife into the bag in front of him and slung it over his shoulder. When he passed by the Colonel, he almost shoved him to the ground.

"See you later Westbrook."

The colonel watched Deathstroke's back with pure hate for the man showing in his eyes, as he walked away, eventually flipping the bird as he walked through a door.

"When we're done with him, i'm going to rip that finger off and shove it so far up his ass that even the best surgeon couldn't remove it!"

Phase looked at the colonel and laughed.

"What's so damn funny you little harlot!" he yelled at the top of his lungs.

"Hey! Remember who you're yelling at buster!"

The colonel walked up to her til he towered over her and pointed his finger again, "I don't care if you're the commander's sex toy or not, i'll yell at you if I want to, got it!"

Phase nodded, and ran off down the hall to get to the sub.

The Colonel shook his head and pulled a flask out of his pocket.

"I just love my job" he said as he took a swig of the drink.

* * *

(**In the Submarine..**)

The Shadow Man had finally decided that it was about time that they moved out. Just a few days earlier one of the guards found and killed one of the guards that was sitting in the bathroom by himself. He found out that the man was working for the Black Manta, and thusly the light.

He really couldn't stand that organization, or the failures that were in it. Ra's al ghul died so many times, and accomplished nothing. Vandal Savage had decent plans for conquering the world, the only problem is that they all failed. The brain was defeated by the teen titans, which says a lot about his capabilities, and who could forget about Lex Luthor, a ruthless businessman with a mindset similar to his. They were all failures though.

The Shadow Man had just picked up his glass to have another sip of the bourbon that occupied when Deathstroke walked in.

"I'm glad that you're here Slade. Please, take off your mask, make yourself at home."

Slade did as he was asked and removed his helmet, then sat down.

"Good, I needed to talk to you about a few things."

"Like what?"

The Shadow man took that sip and swallowed, "My real name for instance, i've never told you my name."

"I don't see a need in telling me that, you've already gained my trust."

The Shadow Man shook his head, "No, no, no, no, no! That won't do at all...I feel like you need to know my name, the name of the man, from whose very loins came Marcas Valitov, the Red Crosshairs."

Slade leaned in and looked at the man straight in the eyes, "Go ahead, I don't think that's it's going to change my mind."

The Shadow Man grinned, "Well, it's not a name that you would recognize since you weren't born around the time, but my name is Martin, Martin Nathaniel Harper."

Slade laughed, "See, it didn't change a thing."

Martin walked over to a panel on the wall next to him and pressed a button. Instantly the wall turned into a huge display, showing a large family tree with Marcas at the end.

"You see mister Wilson, I come from a long line of people that want to capture the world, and eventually rule over it as man should be ruled. There would be no freedom, in the new world that my ancestors imagined, only law, order, and peace. This is how things should be."

Slade looked at the tree then back at him, "So how do you plan to do all of this?"

"Elementary my dear Wilson, we get my son back, then eliminate the Justice league."

Slade face palmed, "Ok, I know about how we get Marcas back, but how do we defeat the league? It's gotten bigger every year."

"Slade, Slade, Slade, you don't look at the bigger picture, more or less see into different universes."

Slade looked at Martin like he was on something and laughed, "Oh really? I didn't know that you could look into other dimensions?"

"Slade, I can't, but my good friend the herald can."

Slade's eyes widened at the mention of the name, "Isn't that a former titan?"

Martin nodded to confirm it, "Yes he was. I knew that since we couldn't defeat the Justice League with anything that in this universe, why not try another?...Do you remember the Justice Lords?"

"Yeah, they took over for the Justice League for a while, and gave them a new look."

"That's true, but they still failed! I realized that using them again would be a mistake, so I decided to investigate further into these alternate realities. I looked at each one, one by one and none showed an answer, that was until I saw a certain portal and had an idea. And I will eventually use that idea when the day comes, for now we should get everyone together, because the roof is going to collapse soon."

* * *

(?)

He set up yards away from the location, and adjusted his scope. Zooming in he could see that Deadshot had them pinned by a building and wasn't going to let them out alive.

He had two choices, kill Deadshot, or scrare the crap out of him...

He chose option b...

He watched the Merc's rifle as it was aimed at a trashcan down from, behind it was one of the people from Fate's crystal ball.

The man had to time his shot right, or else the boy could die, so he took a few breaths to calm his heart rate then he pulled the trigger.

...

Deadshot for sure thought that he had his target and pulled the trigger. What he had hoped to see what blood spatter and a nice sized hole in the trashcan but he didn't.

"What? How did I miss? I never miss a shot!"

In the midst of his panic he checked the clip in his rifle and saw nothing wrong with the ammunition. Then as he put it back in the gun was shot out of his hand. He turned in the direction where it came from and scanned the area and saw nothing.

Another shot rang out, this time knocking him to the ground.

As he was trying to get up, he was lifted off the ground by some unknown force. That force crushed both gauntlets on each of his wrists, which shocked him even more. He looked at the unknown force and saw a blonde haired man with black, white and grey camoflage, and a red jacket.

He looked up into the man's cross-haired eyes and yelled, 'Who are you!"

The man dropped Deadshot on the ground and punched him in the middle of his face.

"I'm no one."

* * *

**_THE END_**

**_END MUSIC: Skyfall - Adelle_**

**Well, that's all for now folks. I hope that everyone that has read this enjoyed, and I hope that it gives a little backstory to my character, the Red Crosshairs. It was fun making this, and the reason why I rushed was because it won't be long before Red's story arc comes along in the Shadow Warriors. So that explains why this whole story sounds like it was rushed.**

**Let me thank those that reviewed my story and even gave me advice, here they are:**

**cew1088**

**Shadow knight1121**

**JediMasterChris1**

**Daniel Wilks**

**Thank you all for reviewing, and let me just add one more thing, The Red Crosshairs will be back!**

**A/N: If you want to know who Colonel Westbrook is, Private message me.**

**_UNTIL NEXT TIME!_**


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